Erongo Region
Erongo's uranium mines (Rössing, Husab) make Namibia the world's fourth-largest producer, with Walvis Bay port and Swakopmund tourism diversifying the desert economy.
Erongo exists because uranium exists—the Namib Desert's ancient granite geology containing deposits that made Namibia the world's fourth-largest uranium producer, responsible for 6% of global output. Over 48 years, the region has produced more than 350 million pounds of uranium oxide, the Rössing and Husab mines representing decades of extraction that continue transforming this coastal desert into an industrial zone.
Husab, the largest single Chinese investment in Africa at 90% Chinese ownership, operates 5 kilometers from Rössing with potential to produce 15 million pounds annually over its 20-year projected lifespan. The 2024 joint venture for a second desalination plant near Swakopmund addresses the water scarcity that constrains mining expansion—the Kuiseb River aquifers having dwindled during the 2013 drought that left coastal towns desperate.
Walvis Bay provides the port infrastructure that mining requires, uranium drummed and shipped through facilities that also support fishing industries along this cold-water coast. Swakopmund's German colonial architecture now serves tourism that provides economic diversity beyond extraction. Whether Erongo's uranium economy persists—or whether the April 2025 Tumas project deferral signals resource cycle decline—tests whether mining wealth translates into sustainable development.