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Tsumeb impressions

Head frame of the de Wet shaft in Main Road of Tsumeb. This is the main way into the mine.

Read from the top or go directly to one of the sections:

Tsumeb's location relative to places mentioned in the text.

You enter Tsumeb through the city gate crossing the road, and eventually arrive at an intersection with a traffic light. The cross road is Tsumeb's main street. To the left you will see most of the shops and the head frame of the De Wet shaft, the park is in front of you to the right and the famous 'Minen Hotel' is behind the park. Use the sketch map for general orientation.

Tsumeb offers the usual basic city facilities of supermarkets, post office, travel agent, tourist shops, church, tourist office, garages and filling stations.

Map of Tsumeb city. This is a small town - you can walk between any pair of points in about five minutes (10 if you want to walk to the petrol station on the road to Otavi).

Your standard textbook hydrothermal vein has an 'oxidation zone' near the surface - this is where you find most of the pretty so-called 'secondary minerals' with brightly coloured crystals in cavities. It is formed by the action of surface waters, carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide, on the sulfide and arsenate ores. The ore is oxidised, sulfide oxidises to sulfate, arsenate to arsenate. The metals, predominantly copper, zinc and lead, are also brought into solution and depending on the local conditions, minerals precipitate. These are carbonates [carbonate being brought with the water from the surface], sulfates and arsenates of copper, zinc and lead, sometimes incorporating other elements as well. These minerals are often colourful, and well-known examples include Azurite, Malachite, Cerussite, Brochantite, and Linarite. Most of these are rather easy to process, but usually occur sparingly in the rock, so the yield of metals from processing oxidised ore may be low.

You have to see this to believe it! Pearly white Schultenite and radiant blue Stranskite, intergrown in Tennantite. This is an exceptional specimen from Tsumeb Museum.
Further down you have a 'reduction zone' or 'cementation zone', carrying minerals with a very high yield of metal. This is beyond the reach of the oxygen, but the water with dissolved metals is still there! It will react with some sulfides and precipitate minerals like native Copper, Chalcocite, Digenite, etc. [all of which can be formed in other ways too!]. The reduction zone may be very narrow or wide, but has much higher metal contents than the unaltered sulfides. Mines working so-so have been known to be very profitable when reaching the reduction zone, and having to close as soon as it has been exploited.
Unaltered sulfides occur in the vein under the reduction zone. They may include minerals like Sphalerite, Galena, Bornite, Tennantite, etc. This part of a mine is often mineralogicaly dull, having few if any cavities with crystals and only a restricted suite of massive ores.

Tsumeb was indeed different! Because of the karst, surface waters percolated to great depth, followed varying routes, and the water level changed often. Consequently there is no clear separation of the oxidation and reduction zones (Keller, 1984), and part of the reduction zone could suddenly become oxidised again or an oxidised area might become reduced. This is certainly the reason for the spectacular pseudomorfs from Tsumeb - the physical conditions changed, and new minerals formed from old ones. Furthermore, the water penetrated the ore body in three different levels, giving three sets of oxidation- and reduction zones. The text-book hydrothermal vein is only affected by water near the surface. This formed the upper 'first oxidation zone', including the Green Hill, and reached from the surface to a depth of approximately 350 meter. The first oxidation zone was followed by unaltered sulfides with sporadic oxidation minerals to a depth of 780 meter, where a second and even larger oxidation zone was encountered. The second oxidation zone reached to the 38th level in approximately 1250 meter depth, and was followed by unaltered sulfides with sporadic oxidation minerals until a third and small oxidation zone was encountered in approximately 1500 meter depth (Gebhard, 1991). Note that the mineralogy of the zones differs markedly.

Wrong! Tsumeb produced copious amounts of superb Dioptase crystals, but so did and do other localities. Tsumeb Dioptase came particularly from between the 30 and 32 levels in the early 1980s. Little has come out since, though some is probably left. A water vein cutting those levels has already flooded the mine, and hence the levels have been sealed and not worked. Though abundant in its day, Dioptase had a typical Tsumeb way of occurrence: very localised. None occurred in the first oxidation zone, and none was found until 1975 (Gebhard, 1999). Then for a period, it was nearly the only mineral to be found in Tsumeb, and since the mid 1980s hardly any has been found.

In its day - early 1980s - Dioptase was often nearly the only mineral coming out of Tsumeb, and dealers longed for something else. Today many would trade their firstborn for a flat or two of the stuff! This is a huge +/- 30 cm specimen of very good quality from the Uta Ulrieke Kahn collection, photographed at the Münchener Mineralientage 1995.
In Namibia, Dioptase crystals were originally found in Guchab approximately 60 km south of Tsumeb, and the best of those were far better and larger than anything ever found in Tsumeb. These specimens are generally not available, and when they are, they will be labeled Guchab, Uchab, or just 'Otavi Mountains' [which includes Tsumeb as well].
Recently (mid-late 1990s) specimens came from Kombat Mine [also operated by the Tsumeb Corporation, and specimens usually offered for sale in Tsumeb] of very lustrous grey Cerussite crystals, incorporating dark green, lustrous Dioptase crystals in the surface. They are usually sold as 'Tsumeb', but are fairly easy to spot, when you have seen one. Kombat is also approximately 60 km south of Tsumeb, but 20 km west of Guchab.
More often than not, you see magnificent Dioptase crystals on pale to medium blue Chrysocolla offered at mineral shows as originating from 'Tsumeb'. They don't! Chrysocolla is comparatively rare in Tsumeb, and these specimens are found near Kaokoveld in Namibia. They are very nice specimens, and considering their availability a better deal than Tsumeb specimens. They tend to be quite lustrous, though darker than Tsumeb material, and the crystals are more elongate.

Descloizite is one of these dull brown minerals, where you are happy to get a few micro crystals ... not so in Namibia! You get crystals to several centimeter, fascinating wrought aggregates, large show pieces, .... Many of these, seemingly particularly many that came out in the 1960s and 1970s, are labeled 'Tsumeb', though Descloizite is unknown in Tsumeb [but see below!]. By far most of the material came from Berg Aukas in Grootfontein, app. 70 km SW, though Abenab (between Tsumeb and Grootfontein) and possibly other sources also produced material. I suspect the error arose from Descloizite being sold with Tsumeb minerals, and often passed through the hands of local dealers in Tsumeb.
Descloizite does occur very rarely in Tsumeb, coming from the first oxidation zone (Gebhard, 1999) but it is far from as spectacular as material from Abenab and Berg Aukas. To complicate matters even further there is the place called Tsumeb West. It is a small vanadium deposit at the western outskirts of Tsumeb, that is not in operation. Tsumeb West has fine Descloizite, often with glossy crystals. Note that it is very unusual to get specimens from Tsumeb West; if you do they are normally labeled 'Tsumeb West' not merely 'Tsumeb'; if you have a Descloizite labeled 'Tsumeb' it is overwhelmingly probably it is from Berg Aukas, but there is no way of telling from a web site!

Cerussite is one of the spectacular but common minerals in Tsumeb, and even a mediocre Tsumeb specimen is better than almost anything else. Consequently, there is little cheating and few mistakes, but ... Remember Kombat ? Very little material comes out of Kombat, but most of what does come, goes through Tsumeb and sometimes gets 'Tsumeb' stuck on as a locality.

I have always found the best of the Tsumeb Cerussite 'snow flakes' immensely appealing. There is a contradiction between their graceful weave of needles and plates and their weight. Just for the record: note that most Cerussite shatters if frozen. DO NOT leave this stuff in an attic or anywhere it may get low temperatures. This hand size specimen is from the Uta Ulrieke Kahn collection, photographed at the Münchener Mineralientage 1995.
Some of the Kombat Cerussites are astonishing - and I have seen a couple of pieces labeled 'Tsumeb' in mineral shows - usually more glossy, and above all may come (but does not invariably) as distinct triangular trillings, three blocky crystals stuck together in a plane, forming the sides of a triangle. A fantastic specimen, approximately 20 cm on edge, from the John Innes collection has been illustrated a couple of times.

Aragonite does occur in Tsumeb, but less so than many believe. Much of the Aragonite is 'Tarnowitzite', a plumboan Aragonite (or Aragonite-Cerussite, if you prefer) - they are really nice! Lately pale blue, botryoidal Aragonite from 28th level has hit the market, but that is a post-mining product and does not qualify as a mineral. Occasional pale blue or greenish blue needle crystal specimens are not from Tsumeb but from the nearby (80-100 km) Kombat Mine. They are fine specimens, but they are not from Tsumeb. Real Aragonite ? You mean real non-plumboan-non-artefactual-really- from-Tsumeb Aragonite ? Yes, I am glad to acknowledge it does exist. It was collected in the first oxidation zone in the 1930s and again in 1995 (Gebhard, 1999).

Tsumeb is a major lead mine, and Galena is by far the most important ore, but have you ever seen Galena from Tsumeb ? Not to mention a specimen worth having ? Probably not. Galena is common, by crystallised Galena is quite rare. Galena crystals

A small hand size specimen of crystallised Galena on display in the Tsumeb Museum. Note the crystals are dull, and look a bit etched. That is normal - this is a very fine Tsumeb Galena.
would occur in cavities, most of which have been leached by percolating waters and maybe filled with secondary minerals. I only recall seeing less than a handful of specimens with Galena crystals, all of which were at least partly dissolved, and even a mediocre Galena is much rarer than a spectacular Tennantite or Enargite.

View of the chimney of the old smelter in Tsumeb [yes, I could have climbed the fence and gotten a lot closer, but I DO have manners!]
Copper mining in Tsumeb is prehistoric (that is, dating to before 1853!) and its origin is unknown. The area was originally inhabited by Hain//om Bushmen, living at Otjikoto Lake 18 km away. They coined the name Tsomsoub, meaning 'digging a hole that keeps falling in'. They were digging for water, but it is a karst area with cracks in the rock. If a hole fills with water, it will soon penetrate cracks and vanish. The Bushmen dug green copper ore, chiefly Malachite from 'the Green Hill', a mass of secondary copper ores approximately 12 meter tall, 40 meter wide and 180 meter long! This hill subsequently made European prospectors quite ecstatic - this is the most conspicuous oxidation zone anybody has ever seen. The Bushmen dug the ore of the Green Hill, transported it home to Otjikoto Lake, where they sold it to Ovambo tradesmen [Ovambo is another local tribe]. (Schatz, 1997)
The oldest written reference to Tsumeb - though the site was still unknown - is by Sir Francis Galton, who visited the Otjikoto Lake in May 1851 and met Ovambo tradesmen carrying rich copper ore. He published his account of the trip in 1853. (Bartelke, 1976). The officer Ladislas Magyar, having married the daughter of the King of Bihˇ, also visited the area in 1853 - by then there was already a considerable export of copper from Katanga in Congo to Europe (de Kun, 1965). It is interesting to note, a specimen of Cuprite - undoubtedly coming from Tsumeb - was donated to the Natural History Museum in Berlin by a Captain Ellisen believing it was from 'Wallfisch Bai' [Walvis Bay], where he presumably acquired the specimen (Gebhard, 1999). Walvis Bay is about 600 km away from Tsumeb, and that is an awfully long way to carry a red rock just because it looks nice, particularly when there are no roads or railways. Things we do not know of today, where definitely happening.
On September 12 1892 South West Africa Company Ltd. got an exclusive right for mining in a 13000 sq. km area including Tsumeb, provided they within 10 years constructed a railway from Swakopmund 566 km away and had an 'orderly mining operation'. Their prospectors located the Green Hill in Tsumeb in 1893 and were obviously ecstatic. Unfortunately They the South West Africa Company could not fulfill the conditions of the lease and on May 12 1903 transferred their mining rights to the 'Otavi Minen und Eisenbahn Gesellschaft' (OMEG), who then had to construct the railway from Swakopmund before the end of 1906! OMEG made it, the railway was finished in November 1906 and inaugurated December 16 1906. (Schatz, 1997). OMEG proceeded with open pit mining until 1909 and since then mining has been underground. Shafts had been sunk earlier to estimate the size and richness of the ore, but they were only used for prospecting (Bartelke, 1976).
Mining was initiated before the railway was finished under the management of the mining engineer Theodor Gathemann, and slowly a city grew around the mine. Some of the earliest companies still exist in Tsumeb, albeit with highly modified appearances: The 'Tsumeb Hotel', founded 1906 still exists as the 'Makalani Hotel' and the 'Minen Hotel' founded by OMEG in 1907 is also still in operation. The mine employed local staff, mostly Ovambos, as well as miners trained in Germany, chiefly Siegerland. This established the link from Tsumeb miners to chiefly German collectors and universities purchasing specimens, predominantly mediated by the dealer Wilhelm Maucher (1879- 1930) in München. (Schatz, 1997).

Main entrance to the offices of the Tsumeb Corporation Ltd. in Main Road, Tsumeb.
OMEG retained their rights and ownership of the Tsumeb mine at the end of World War I in 1918 [Namibia - then German Southwest Africa - had been occupied by the South African forces already i 1915], and continued operation. Following World War II the property was seized, and transferred to the Tsumeb Corporation Limited (TCL), formed by the US companies American Metal Climax Company, Newmont Mining Corporation (the managers) and O'okiep Copper Company (a South African subsidiary of Newmont), and of the Rhodesian Selection Trust in 1947, and was subsequently purchased by the current owners, Goldfields (de Kun, 1965; Keller, 1984; Schatz, 1997).

The Tsumeb Museum, operated by Ilse Schatz, is definitely worth a visit - good minerals, comprehensive arms and army equipment display, and interesting Bushman artifacts. Signs and texts are sparse, but do ask the staff - they are keen on telling about the displays and the history of the area.
Wilson (1977) estimates that Tsumeb at that date - still having about 20 years of operation left - had produced metals worth about one billion US dollars, equivalent to the entire production of the Comstock Lode! That is quite spectacular for a lead mine. Tsumeb has also been a strategic resource for the USA. During the 1970s trouble in Angola and Namibia (communist uprisings, etc.) Tsumeb was virtually fortified. Though a huge mine, it seems a considerable effort, but Tsumeb supposedly supplied over 90% of the US consumption of Germanium [in the order of a few ton per year!], not available from any other source. That was before the silicon chip, when all semiconductors were manufactured from germanium and gallium. de Kun (1965) mentions a production of 31 tons germanium in 1962 valued at USD 1.8 million! That should be compared to values of a few hundred USD per ton of copper, zinc and lead. On top of that, additional 12 tons of germanium were refined from Tsumeb ores in other countries. As a cursory note: the Tsumeb slag dump supposedly contains adequate germanium to cover the world's need for about nine years.

Tsumeb is closed and it is for good. The final diggings in the 48th level, over 1600 meter underground looked more like a limestone quarry than anything else. The mine was worked by the 'stope and pillar' method, the stopes were filled in and the pillars removed. There are obviously still interesting little spots down there, but nothing that will ever support a mine. The pumps stopped and the mine is full of water. End of story ... almost.

View of the chimney of the new Tsumeb smelter, producing very high grade lead, blister copper, cadmium, and sodium antimonate. Note the dumps - they are all slags and fine dust of rock. There is no dump to roam through, looking for specimens.
The Kombat mine is still in operation and ships its ore to Tsumeb for processing. It is not a 'new Tsumeb', but the mine does have spectacular specimens, including some rare manganese silicates unknown in Tsumeb. TCL also has a lease on Tschudi, which may or may not be a major copper deposit, as well as on a number of smaller vanadium deposits. There is still hope. It is pathetic, but those mediocre Cerussites I rejected three years ago will be valuable 'classic specimens' 20 years from now.

Huge Malachite pseudomorphous after Azurite crystals have always been a treasured Tsumeb specialty. This +/- 30 cm long specimen is from the Uta Ulrieke Kahn collection, photographed at the Münchener Mineralientage 1995.
The mine has always - more or less persistently - discouraged specimen collection and forbidden the workers to bring anything out. This is presumably not due to the loss of ore, but simply because some workers would collect specimens for themselves and not work for the mine, and mining might progress predominantly towards areas with little ore but many specimens. A miner caught bringing specimens out will be warned, and fired if he does it again. It is a strict policy and though sad to the collecting community, it probably kept the mine in operation! In the early 1980s - that is when Dioptase was abundant - the company tried to collect specimens and sell them at auctions. The auctions stopped soon, not generating any profit. Mineral dealers present at the auctions have said they only offered "rubbish" and the good specimens still penetrated the cracks in the system.
The truth is that most Tsumeb specimens in collections have a ... shall we say 'questionable' ? ... provenance. Lunch box specimens were discouraged, but it is hard to blame the miners, who saw the specimens and got a good price for them, when several senior staff openly collected and amassed prominent collections. Effectively it must have been a loosely moderated "don't ask, don't tell" policy. You will obviously be able to buy some specimens - being a tourist, parking your car in the street, will almost certainly generate offers from miners passing - but forget everything about fantastic and unique specimens. This is a mining town, not a mineral show. Whenever something unique showed up, it went directly through middlemen to foreign dealers. Nobody in Tsumeb has a stock of fantastic specimens. There are a couple of collectors who have nice specimens, they will part with about as willingly as with their children!
Your trip to Tsumeb will be interesting, educational and rewarding, but don't expect to bring home specimens. If you want specimens, go to a mineral show.

Termites are about the only wildlife you will be certain to see. These industrious critters build mounds that are easily 2 meter tall. This is a frequent sight along the road from Otjiwarongo to Tsumeb.
Tsumeb Museum is really a must! Even if you are on the way to Etosha, and wish to skip Tsumeb, stop for half an hour. It is fairly small but has a comprehensive collection of WWI arms, historic documents, Bushman artifacts, miners' equipment, and a couple of show cases of minerals. Some of the specimens are absolutely exquisite - a large crystal of Stottite, a superb Stranskite & Schultenite specimen, and a fine Calcite with oriented intergrowth of Duftite chevrons. The museum is operated by Ilse Schatz [author of 'Tsumeb zu O.M.E.G's Zeiten'], a treasure-trove of historic information, often tending the entrance booth herself. Don't miss the steam engine in front of the museum.

Brass canon, dumped by the German Schutztruppe into Otjikoto Lake to avoid it falling into the hands of British troops and subsequently recovered. Currently on display in Tsumeb Museum.
Otjikoto Lake app. 18 km outside town is a pleasant site with lots of vegetation, colourful cichlid fishes, and is the source of the city's water supply. Tsumeb has no surface water, and though plenty water runs into the mine, this is not potable. Oshikoto Lake is also the site where the early Bushman traders brought copper ore from Tsumeb and traded it to the Ovambo merchants.
The De Wet shaft head frame is in the main street of Tsumeb, and is always good for an instructive photograph. You rarely get this close to a head frame without trespassing! Do visit the Hoba meteorite near Grootfontein. It is a spectacular 1 meter thick 3 by 3 meter chunk of nickel iron with a small visitor's center. Leave Tsumeb towards Otavi, g through the city gate, turn left towards Grootfontein immediately outside town. Approximately 10-20 km before Grootfontein a sign [not frightfully conspicuous, as far as I remember] points right towards the Hoba Meteorite, and after 20-40 km in a dirt road, you are there! Bring water and food. There are no real facilities, but it is a great place for a picnic.

Oriented chevrons of Duftite in Calcite in the specimen from Tsumeb Museum. This is very educational, demonstrating that even if Calcite (and supposedly any other mineral) is chemically uniform, specific surfaces differ in their properties. In this unusual specimen, only certain crystal faces of the growing Calcite got covered with green Duftite, other did not. If you have one of these to spare, please let me know - I should really like to have one of these because it is such a good educational specimen.
That's nice. Then what ? Look for the conspicuous 'boring' things like Hematite and Pyrite - you rarely see either from Tsumeb, Hematite because it is quite rare, Pyrite because it is perfectly hideous! And yes, my Galena does have crystals. My Pyromorphite deserves a big question mark, as it has only been verified from Tsumeb once - ignoring the obvious possibility that my piece is indeed Pyromorphite, but not from Tsumeb.
I am afraid this endeavour was unpleasantly educational, as I found the following items also labeled 'Tsumeb', yet conspicuously absent from all the lists of species found in Tsumeb. I presume they have been acquired from or through somebody dealing in Tsumeb minerals, and the locality was assumed:

Prehnite with Apophyllite - this does occur on the west side of Brandberg, about a days drive away.
Lepidolite - typical of lithium pegmatites, and supposedly from a hydrothermal Pb-Zn- Cu-vein ? Come on! Plenty of lithium pegmatites around Karibib and Usakos, though.
Sphärocobaltite - This looks like a Tsumeb specimen, but is probably not Sphärocobaltite [cobalt carbonate]. Cobalt occurs in Tsumeb, but mostly as a trace element in Co-Dolomite or Co-Smithsonite. If you had labeled this piece Co-Dolomite, I would not have questioned either ID or locality.

Anonymous. 1904. Kriegskarte von Deutsch- Südwestafrika, 1:800,000 (reprinted April & July 1987 and 1994 in 1:960,000 by National Archives of Namibia) with Gunther von Schumann & Walter Rusch. 1987 & 1994. Index of names appearing on the 'Kriegskarte von Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904', Archeia, 9, II+38 pp.

This should be compulsory for anybody going to or interested in Namibia! It may seem like a joke to recommend a 95 year old map, prepared literally in weeks by German forces expecting an invasion. The brilliant part is the index - it is the only Namibian map of reasonable detail with an index! You can look up names of farms, often appearing on labels, you can find rivers and hills. This is indispensable.

Anonymous. 1994. Republic of Namibia, 1:1,000,000 (colloquially known as the 'farm map')

If you go to Namibia, buy this one! It is cheap, available in most book stores and tourist shops, and above all up to date. It outlines and names all Namibia's farms, most of which are 50-100 sq. km and up, indicates major and minor roads, railways, etc. The only detraction: there is no index! You can spend an evening and several beers looking for 'Hoffnungsstrahl'.

Bartelke, W. 1976. Die Erzlagerstätte von Tsumeb/Südwestafrika und ihre Mineralien, Aufschluss, 27(12), 393-439

Few illustrations, and mostly black & white, but does give at least a short description of the 147 known minerals plus a dozen of the 'exotics' and varieties. I hate this kind of descriptions [not Bartelke's fault or doing!] that are absolute, not comparative. OK, Malachite is green ... so is Duftite, Conichalcite, Tsumebite, Dioptase ,.... So what ? I still can't identify the green crud on my specimen. Bartelke at least has some observations on paragenesis and a good list of references.

Daltry, Vaughan .C. 1992. Type mineralogy of Namibia, Geological Survey of Namibia, Bulletin 1, 142 pp.

Note that the cover lists the author as V.D.C. Daltry, the front page as Vaughan .C. Daltry. This book lists all the minerals originally described from Tsumeb as well as other deposits - no big deal, as you can find that information elsewhere. What I do like is that it gives explicit references to the descriptions, often has a lot of detail to where in a mine a mineral was found, and also lists more obscure compounds, often ignored by other references. If you are seriously into Tsumeb mineralogy, you should read this one cover to cover.

de Kun, Nicolas. 1965. The mineral resources of Africa, Amsterdam, XXVI+740 pp.

Emphasis on mining statistics and ownership, very little geology, but still the best overview of anything related to African mining. Gracefully aged!

Gebhard, Georg. 1991. Tsumeb eine deutsch- afrikanische Geschichte, Reichshof, 239 pp.

Imminently illustrated and comprehensive book by a competent author, covering history, geology, mineralogy, individuals, etc. The actual mineral descriptions are a tad too cursory for my taste [see Bartelke reference for comment], but this and Gebhard 1999 will certainly remain the key references to people studying Tsumeb. Lists all minerals and lots of references.

Gebhard, Georg. 1992. Tsumeb: Namen und Geschichten, 33-47 in Maximilian Glas (ed.), Reiches Erz, catalogue for Mineralientage München.

Cynically you may see this as an advertisement of the author's 1991 book, but it is an interesting paper with biographies of people who had Tsumeb minerals named for them.

Gebhard, Georg. 1999. Tsumeb a unique mineral locality, Grossenseifen, 328 pp.

This is an English edition of Gebhard 1991, but a bit more than that. 90 additional pages have left room for much new material, including descriptions of recent finds [see Bartelke reference for comment].

Keller, Paul. 1984. Tsumeb, Lapis 9(7-8), 13- 63

Comprehensive and probably my favourite of the references. More in-depth geology and good correlation of geology and mineral descriptions [though see Bartelke reference for comment], often mentions Miller indices for observed forms and credits with explicit references for mineral descriptions. Also illustrates many of the more obscure species.

Schatz, Ilse. 1997. Tsumeb zu O.M.E.G's Zeiten, Tsumeb, XII+194 pp.

If you like mining history, you must own this book! It is the ultimate reference for Tsumeb history, written by in part an eyewitness, in part next-of-kin. Ilse Schatz runs the Tsumeb Museum, curating the collections and archives of her father-in-law, Gustav Adolf Schatz.

Schneider, G.I.C. & G. Genis. 1992. Cadmium, Geological Survey of Namibia, Mineral Resource Series 40, 2 pp.

Overview of cadmium mining in Namibia, i.e. on Tsumeb.

Schneider, G.I.C. & K.G. Seeger. 1992. Copper, Geological Survey of Namibia, Mineral Resource Series 49, 118 pp.

Overview of copper mining in Namibia, i.e. chiefly on Tsumeb.

Schneider, G.I.C. 1992. Germanium & Gallium, Geological Survey of Namibia, Mineral Resource Series 31, 2 pp.

Overview of germanium and gallium mining in Namibia, i.e. on Tsumeb.

Wartha, R.R. & G. Genis. 1992. Lead & Zinc, Geological Survey of Namibia, Mineral Resource Series 19, 43 pp.

Overview of lead and zinc mining in Namibia, i.e. chiefly on Tsumeb.

Wilson, Wendell E. (ed.). 1977. Tsumeb! The world's greatest mineral locality, Mineralogical Record, 8(3), 130 pp.

This is good and by many considered the ultimate resource for Tsumeb aficionados, so bear with me when I say it is over 20 years old, and it shows. This is a collection of 19 papers by different authors on Tsumeb and its mineralogy. Original descriptions of Leiteite, Keyite and Ludlockite, and a description of all known minerals by Pinch & Wilson [see Bartelke reference for comment]. Most photos are black & white, but the book does illustrate a number of obscure species. The 10 page paper by Paul Keller sets this reference apart from all others - very good to gain wisdom from, even if you don't care about Tsumeb.