Alaska is a small town in central northern
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
in
Makonde District,
Mashonaland West Province
Mashonaland West is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 57,441 km² and a population of approximately 1.9 million (2022). Chinhoyi is the capital of the province.
Demographics
Geography
Districts
Mashonaland West is divid ...
.
Location
The town is located approximately west of the city of
Chinhoyi
Chinhoyi, previously known as Sinoia during the colonial era, is a city in central northern Zimbabwe in the Makonde District. It has a population of 90,800 and is primarily a college town, although it was originally founded as an Italian group ...
, the location of the district and provincial headquarters.
Approximately to the northeast of Alaska are the Chinhoyi Caves in the
Chinhoyi Caves National Park, a local tourist attraction. The town sits at an elevation of , above sea level.
History
Alaska grew up around the eponymous Alaska Mine, where pre-colonial miners are believed to have mined about a million tonnes of ore. Messina Transvaal Development Company (MTD) started producing
copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
in 1959 and the mine closed in 1977. MTD built a smelter nearby in 1966 and a refinery in 1980. Other mines in the district also produced copper flotation concentrate which was brought to Alaska for
smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...
and
refining
Refining is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, but which is more useful in its pure form. For instance, most types of natural petroleum w ...
.
These mines included MTD's Mhangura copper mine in
Mhangura and
Shackleton mine.
The smelter and refinery closed in late 2000, by which time most of the mines feeding it had to close, devastating the local economy and plunging the town's inhabitants into poverty. Periodic reports of Chinese investment reopening the mine and smelter have not come to fruition.
Population
According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 3,854.
By 2002 its population stood at 3,846 people.
See also
*
Districts of Zimbabwe
The Republic of Zimbabwe is broken down into 10 administrative provinces of Zimbabwe, provinces, which are divided into 64 districts and 1,970 Wards of Zimbabwe, wards.
Bulawayo Province
* Bulawayo
Harare Province
* Harare ...
*
Provinces of Zimbabwe
Provinces are constituent Polity, political entities of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe currently has ten provinces, two of which are City, cities with provincial status. Zimbabwe is a unitary state, and its provinces exercise only the powers that the centr ...
*
Economy of Zimbabwe
The economy of Zimbabwe is a gold standard based economy. Zimbabwe has a $44 billion dollar informal economy in PPP terms which translates to 64.1% of the total economy. Agriculture and mining largely contribute to exports. The economy is estima ...
References
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Populated places in Mashonaland West Province
Makonde District
1959 establishments in Southern Rhodesia
Populated places established in 1959