History of the Northern Cape
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1600s
Northern Cape Province (NCP) recognised by indigenous South Africans as a copper-rich area
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1685
Simon van der Stel (VOC Commander of the Cape) leads negotiations with indigenous people for copper-mining rights
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1850
Extensive mining commences. This is the first purely speculative mineral boom of any kind in SA
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1927
American mining giant Newmont Mining acquires the Namakwa Copper Field from the Cape Copper Company
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1937
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1940
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1955
The Carolusberg Mine developed to a depth of ~2 000m, mining some 411kt of copper, representing around 26Mt @ 1,54% Cu in the region
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1960s
OCC lists on the New York Stock Exchange and pays the highest dividend ever during that period
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1984
Newmont sells OCC to Gold Fields South Africa, due to political pressure resulting from the Apartheid regime.
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1998
Gold Fields sells OCC to Metorex limited to become a more gold-focused company
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2006
Metorex stops mining. They start clean-up/slag retreatment and reclamation activity of the assets
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2010
SHiP acquires the mineral rights to most of the prospective copper deposits in the region, covering some 36 000 hectares
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2013
Metorex declines developing the region after mining ceases. They divest the OCC which becomes an earth-moving company not holding any significant mineral tenure.
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Today