History
Uranium was discovered in the Namib Desert in 1928, but it was not until intensive exploration in the late 1950s that much interest was shown in the area. After discovering numerous uranium occurrences, mining company Rio Tinto secured the rights to the low-grade Rössing deposit in 1966. Ten years later, in 1976, Rössing Uranium, Namibia’s first commercial uranium mine, started production. In 2019, CNUC acquired the majority shareholding in Rössing Uranium.

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Today

Today, Namibia has two operating uranium mines (Rössing Uranium and Swakop Uranium), with the Langer Heinrich Uranium mine expected to resume production in 2024, after being under care and maintenance since 2018. In 2023, the two Namibian mines produced 13% of the world’s uranium oxide output, while Rössing Uranium produced 4.5%. In 2023, Rössing Uranium celebrated 47 years of production.

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Our capacity
The mine has a nameplate capacity of 4,500 tonnes of uranium oxide per year and, by the end of 2023, had supplied a total of 148,537 tonnes of uranium oxide to the world.

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Our location
The mine is located 12km from the town of Arandis, which lies 70km inland from the coastal town of Swakopmund in Namibia’s Erongo Region. Walvis Bay, Namibia’s only deep-water harbour, is located 43km south of Swakopmund. The mine site encompasses a mining licence and accessory works areas of 129.79km2, of which 25km2 is used for mining, waste disposal and processing.

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Current operations
Mining is done by drilling, blasting, loading and hauling from the open pit before the uranium-bearing rock is processed to produce uranium oxide.

The open pit currently measures 3.5km by 1.5km and is 420m deep

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Our stakeholders
This report is aimed at all our partners and stakeholders, including private citizens and their communities, as well as non-governmental organisations, small-scale enterprises, and multi-national corporations. Thus, the benefits of our operations are felt locally, nationally, across the African continent and internationally.