ROSH PINAH
Geologist Gisela Hinder sheds light on the minerals and crystals of Namibia.
The gravel road to Rosh Pinah is one of the most scenic in Namibia. From the south, the C13 takes you along the Orange River from Noordoewer or Sendelingsdrift, past the green vineyards of Aussenkehr and through the rugged desert mountains that form part of the /Ai/Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park.
Rosh Pinah means “cornerstone” in Hebrew. Approaching the town from the other direction, from Aus in the north, you can see how important it is for Namibia’s mining industry: The C13 here is tarred to allow trucks carrying lead or zinc concentrate to reach the harbour in Lüderitz, from where it’s exported, mainly to China.
The arid and seemingly hostile mountainous landscape hides the underground riches on which Rosh Pinah is built. At 6.30 am and 6.30 pm every day, a blast of dynamite echoes over the town to remind you what matters here. If you want to make Rosh Pinah your home, like retired geologist Gisela Hinder has done, you have to get used to these blasts, and also to the heat, dust and isolation.
It’s hard to miss the Geo Centre that Gisela runs because it has a prominent location on a koppie next to the main road through town.
Gisela was born in a small town in Germany. Once she’d finished her studies, she found that job opportunities for a geologist in her home country were scarce. She played club soccer as a goalie for a while, before moving to South Africa in 1990 where she found employment at Iscor in Thabazimbi. However, she had always wanted to live and work in Namibia, so in 1999 she moved to Rosh Pinah.
The town and surrounding area, and its people, immediately spoke to her. “Namibia is like Eldorado to geologists because the geology of the landscape is exposed and you can read it like a book,” she says.
After her retirement in 2012, she opened the Geo Centre in town. The centre is right next door to her house so she can welcome tourists and keep an eye on her precious stone collection at the same time! Gisela is living her dream: At the Geo Centre she can teach people – especially children – more about geology.
During a tour Gisela will guide
you through the exhibition area and tell you more about what you see. She’ll also explain the difference between the town’s two mines – the Rosh Pinah Zinc Corporation and the Skorpion Zinc mine.
The deposits at Skorpion Zinc were discovered in the 1970s, but back then the techniques to mine the ore didn’t exist. By 2003 the technology had caught up and the mine could start doing business.
“The minerals mined at the Rosh Pinah Zinc Corporation are zinc, lead and copper,” she says. You can see the mine from the Geo Centre, but it’s mostly hidden inside the belly of the mountain.
“Dynamite is used to break up the rock, which is then excavated and taken to the crushers,” Gisela explains. “The minerals are then separated using a flotation process.”
She continues: “In 1989 they opened a large pocket of baryte here. Apparently it was the most beautiful baryte ever found in Africa – orange and yellow in colour. Some of the miners who opened the pocket could buy new cars afterwards!”
Namibia is known for its living geology and enthusiasts often visit the country to add crystals, stones and minerals to their collections. Each mineral “grows” in different ways under different conditions and the endless variations in shape increase the collector’s value.
“When collectors hear about a new type of mineral found in a mine somewhere, they’ll pay hundreds of thousands of rands for a unique piece,” Gisela says.
Her own collection comprises 758 different stones from all over Namibia, including some unusual samples. “I have everything from a piece of the Gibeon meteorite to gallstones,” she says. “I also have hyalite, a fluorescent mineral found in the Erongo Mountains. When I shine a UV light on it, it glows bright green. Then there’s the copper minerals from Skorpion Zinc, which are green and blue and very beautiful to see, as are the rare gypsum needles from the Rosh Pinah Zinc Corporation.”
Behind the Geo Centre, a short trail leads up what Gisela calls Quiver Tree Koppie. From the summit you have a view of the town and the stony mountains surrounding it. Gisela points out the green roofs on many of the buildings. “Since Skorpion Zinc became active in 2003, many new houses have been built, as well as banks, a clinic and a nursery school. There’s lots to do: The town has soccer teams, a rugby team, a darts club, an angling club, a golf course and even an Olympic-size swimming pool. Still, it’s a safe town with very little crime.”
On top of the koppie there’s a small monument Gisela helped put up to honour Dr Michael McMillan, who made the first important mineral discovery here in 1963. McMillan made a big impression on her. “He was a geologist who liked the oldschool way of doing things,” she says. “He didn’t just sit in front of his computer in an air-conditioned office – he went out into the field. He had a passion for geology that you don’t see very often any more.”
Without McMillan, Rosh Pinah would have been just another place in the veld where a springbok could rest in the shade of a quiver tree. Gisela knows that the town depends on the mines for its survival, but she also wants to be part of a Rosh Pinah beyond the mining industry. She is focused on tourism and wants to stay here until she “jumps into her coffin”.
“This place is a nature lover’s dream,” she says. She likes to take her dogs for walks outside town, where one of them recently had a run-in with a porcupine. Gisela had to drive 400 km to Keetmanshoop to take it to the vet.
There is no way around it: Rosh Pinah is remote and isolated. But that’s exactly how Gisela likes it. “The landscape has given me so much, right from the start,” she says.