Uis is located in the shadow of the Brandberg Mountain, Namibia's
highest. The Brandberg is home to the world famous The White Lady rock
painting, said by some to be over 20,000 years old. Being also situated
on the main road between the coast and the Damaraland interior there is s
reasonable amount of traffic and Uis manages to eke out an existence
based almost entirely on this traffic passing through the area. There is
a small supermarket, guesthouses, bakery and a petrol station, together
with a few other small shops.
Mining industry
Tin has been
mined in the Uis region since the early 1900s and the settlement was
established in 1958 as a mine workers residence when a South African
mining company started operations there and increased production. Today
when approaching Uis, the first thing you see is a huge white mountain
which is in fact the old mine dump for processed tin ore.
In 1991, the main mining operation closed down because the price of tin
dropped far enough to make it un-economical. There is still minimal work
progressing on the mine site today. Technology has improved enough to
make it worthwhile to re-process the already excavated ore that was
originally discarded and there is a tiny re-processing plant located
near the old mine dumps. This ore is processed to an enriched state and
then taken to Walvis Bay for export. Uis is in danger of becoming a
ghost town if mining cannot be continued. Uis is scheduled to be
downgraded to "settlement" status before November 2010.
One product
that Uis still produces is rocks and minerals. Namibia is well known as a
mineral rich country and geologists come from all over the world to
study in Namibia because much of the interesting geology and rare rocks
are situated at ground level rather than on top of mountains or deep
underground
