Minerals
One of the immediate results of the German occupation was an influx into the country of mining prospectors who were eager to secure concessions. Mineral rights over large areas were bought from native chiefs, and prospecting was actively carried on. The concessions were in many instances transferred to third and sometimes fourth parties, until at length the mining rights of the whole country were held by the following: The Deutsche Kolonial Gesellschaft, the Kaoko Land und Minen Gesellschaft, the South-West Africa Company, the Otavi Minen und Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, the Hanseatische Land und Minen Gesellschaft, the Gibeon Schuerf und Handels Gesellschaft, the South African Territories Company, and the Government. For some years each of these parties kept to its own laws, which regulated or prohibited prospecting operations. The Government recognised the need for greater uniformity, and in 1913 the various companies, with the exception of the South-West Africa Company, entered into agreements with the Government. The royalties payable to the different companies were fixed by these agreements.
Next to the valuable diamond fields, the copper mines rank in importance. The rich deposits in the Otavi district were known to South Africans some years before the German occupation. They were worked by the Bushmen, who quarried and smelted the metal, using as a flux the ash of a tree, and by the Ovambos, who adorned themselves with heavy copper ornaments. The fine outcrop at Tsumeb was discovered in 1892. The Otavi Company is a German concern with issued capital which has been fully paid up in cash, of £1,000,000 in 200,000 £5 shares. The Company took over from the South-West Africa Company 1,000 square miles of mining rights and 500 square miles of freehold rights contained therein, in order to work the group of copper mines in the Otavi area, but by virtue of its shareholding the South-West Africa Company holds an interest in the Otavi Company of about 55 per cent. This holding is the chief asset of the South-West Africa Company. The ore mined is divided into a high-grade copper product, principally copper glance, which has been exported to America, and lead ores, largely galena, and low-grade carbonate copper ores, which have been smelted at the mine. Since the completion of the Company’s railway from Swakopmund in 1908, the yearly output has averaged 36,000 tons. Other deposits are found at Grootfontein, Grossotavi, and Gochab, while recent discoveries include finds in the Bobos Mountains in the Tsumeb district, and at Okatumba, north-east of Windhoek. The Khan mine has been opened up to a considerable depth, and development work was proceeding in other promising mines when war was declared.