Rosh Pinah is a mining town located in southern

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, close to the border with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It is situated south of

Keetmanshoop Keetmanshoop is a city in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia, lying on the Trans-Namib Railway from Windhoek to Upington in South Africa. It is named after Johann Keetman, a German industrialist and benefactor of the city. History Befo ...

in Namibia's

ǁKaras Region The ǁKaras Region (pronounced , with a lateral click) is the southernmost and least densely populated of the 14 regions of Namibia; its capital is Keetmanshoop. The name assigned to the region reflects the prominence of the Karas mountain rang ...

. West of the town lies Diamond Area 1, the main diamond mining area of Namibia. Rosh Pinah belongs to the Oranjemund electoral constituency. The town is connected via road to Aus and

Oranjemund Oranjemund (German for ''"Mouth of Orange"'') is a diamond mining town of 4,000 inhabitants situated in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border to South Africa. Histo ...

. Copper was discovered here in the 1920s, and in 1963 German-born Jew

Mose Kohan Mose, Mosè, or Mosé is a given name which may refer to: People In religion * Mose Durst, former president of the Unification Church of the United States * Mosé Higuera, Colombian Catholic bishop * Mosè Tovini, Italian Roman Catholic priest In ...

discovered zinc in the nearby

Hunz Mountains Hunz is an electronic pop music group from Brisbane, Australia. The name Hunz can refer to either the group or its composer, keyboardist and vocalist, Hans van Vliet. The group was formed in 2005 by Johannes (Hans) van Vliet (born 15 December ...

in 1963. He also coined the name "Rosh Pinah" which is a Hebrew term for "cornerstone".Tonchi, Victor L., William A. Lindeke, and John J. Grotpeter
"Rosh Pinah Mine"
Historical Dictionary of Namibia. 2nd edition. (2012) Toronto: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, p. 373. More significant deposits of zinc were found in 1968. Rosh Pinah is home to two mines,

Skorpion Zinc Skorpion Zinc is a zinc mine in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia, producing Special High Grade (SHG) zinc. The mine is situated near Rosh Pinah. It was established at a cost of US$450 million by Anglo American in 2003. It is the tenth-larg ...

and

Rosh Pinah mine The Rosh Pinah mine is a mine near Rosh Pinah in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is one of the largest and most important lead and zinc mines in Namibia. The mine is located in the extreme southwest, about north of the Orange River and ...

. Both mines extract mainly

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

. Like other mining towns in Namibia, the settlement was created when the first mine was opened. The Rosh Pinah mine was established in 1969 and has been in continuous operation since then.

opened in 2001 and is the eighth-largest zinc mine in the world. It is the largest employer in town, providing 1,900 jobs. The settlement is administered by the company RoshSkor (named after and co-owned by both mining operators) because it does not have its own local government authority and falls, like all Namibian settlements, under its regional administration. The town manager is Slabbert Burger. The town is economically entirely dependent on its mines which own 90% of the property and provide the vast majority of jobs. "If the mines close, Rosh Pinah will become another

Kolmanskop Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for “Coleman's head”, german: Kolmannskuppe) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, ten kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during ...

, as we are not sustainable as a town", Burger stated in 2019. Hoeksteen Combined School and Tsau ǁKhaeb Secondary School are government schools located in town. File:Rosh Pinah Orange River.jpg, Orange River near Rosh Pinah (October 2016) File:Rosh Pinah, Skorpion Airfield (2017).jpg, Rosh Pinah Skorpion Airfield (2017) File:Aussprache Rosh Pinah.ogg, Pronunciation of ''Rosh Pinah''

External links

References

{{Authority control Mining communities in Africa Populated places in the ǁKaras Region Populated places established in 1969 1969 establishments in South West Africa Mining in Namibia