Otavi Mining and Railway Company
| Otavi Mining and Railway Company Otavi Minen AG S&B Industrial Minerals GmbH Imerys Metalcasting Germany GmbH |
|
|---|---|
| legal form |
Kolonialgesellschaft (1900–1976) Aktiengesellschaft (1976–2008) GmbH (since 2003) |
| ISIN | DE0006873003 |
| founding | 1900 |
| resolution | 2009 (AG) |
| Reason for dissolution | merger |
| Seat |
Berlin Eschborn Oberhausen |
| management | Dirk Steinkemper Shumin Wang Sergio Sarafopoulos |
| Number of employees | 234 |
| sales | 126 million euros |
| Branch |
Railway construction Mining of ores Trade in industrial minerals |
| Website | www.imerys.com |
| Status: 2018 | |
The Otavi Mining and Railway Company (OMEG) was established in 1900 as a colonial society , based in Berlin , founded a railroad between Swakopmund and Tsumeb ( Otavibahn ) in what was then German South West Africa , now Namibia to build, and the local Mining copper ore .
history
The initiator was the Hamburg lawyer and colonial entrepreneur Julius Scharlach , and during the construction phase, the railway engineer Alfred Gaedertz was the chairman of the board from 1903 to 1907 . The railway reached Tsumeb in March 1906 after 567 kilometers and 110 bridges, the line was opened on November 12, 1906. In 1907/1908, the South West Africa Company built a 91.3 km long branch between Otavi and Grootfontein in just nine months , which was also operated by OMEG. In 1910 the treasury of the protected area bought the Otavibahn, but OMEG continued to run the business as a tenant under the name Deutsch-Südwestafrikanische-Eisenbahn / Otavi-Eisenbahn (DSWAE / OE). With 672 km, the network was the largest uniformly operated in the 600 mm gauge .
After the end of the First World War , the company continued its activities from 1921 in the form of a "Foreign Company". Friedrich Wilhelm Kegel headed the company from 1922 to 1932 . With the outbreak of the Second World War , all plants, mines and farms were taken over by a South African trustee who closed the mine in Tsumeb in 1940 .
In 1947 the OMEG's remaining assets in what is now Namibia were sold by the union administrator for enemy property. The buyer was the Okiep Copper Company, which did the business for Tsumeb Corporation Ltd. made.
In Germany, OMEG continued its business operations. Since the legal basis for colonial companies ceased to exist on January 1, 1977 with the expiry of the Protected Areas Act , OMEG was converted into a stock corporation in 1976 and renamed Otavi Minen AG .
From 1989 to 1996 Cookson GmbH acquired 86.7% of the shares in Otavi Minen AG , which it sold in 1998 to Silver & Baryte Ores Mining Co. SA in Athens via S&B Holding GmbH (later S&B Minerals Beteiligungs GmbH ) .
In 2000 Otavi Minen AG was converted into a holding company. The productive business was taken over by the newly founded subsidiary Otavi Minerals GmbH . In the same year, Otavi Minen AG concluded a control and profit and loss transfer agreement with S&B Minerals Beteiligungs GmbH . In the following, the S&B Minerals Beteiligungs GmbH was first renamed IKO Minerals GmbH and later S&B Industrial Minerals GmbH .
In 2003 Otavi Minerals GmbH was integrated into S&B Industrial Minerals GmbH and business operations continued as a division.
The Otavi mines AG submitted its last 31 December 2008 annual financial statements before. The S & B Industrial Minerals GmbH became their legal successor.
After the takeover by the Imersys Group in 2014, S&B Industrial Minerals GmbH was renamed Imerys Metalcasting Germany GmbH .
gallery
600 mm diesel multiple unit, top speed 137 km / h (1914)
Tank locomotive of the OMEG near Tsumeb (around 1931)
Track systems on an industrial site in Tsumeb (around 1931)
OMEG steam railcar
Arnold Jung Locomotive (built in 1905) of the Otavi Mining and Railway Company in Tsumeb (2011)
Narrow gauge locomotive of OMEG No. 41 (Henschel & Sohn, Kassel, 1912/10721), monument in Otjiwarongo
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literature
- Heidi Schnorbus (ed.): The history of the Otavi-Minen-AG. 1900-2000. An eventful century. Otavi Minen AG, Eschborn 2000.
Web links
- History of OMEG / Otavi ( Memento from January 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Early documents and newspaper articles about the Otavi Mining and Railway Company in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Announcement in the commercial register, May 22, 2009
- ↑ Annual financial statements 2018
- ↑ Brenda Bravenboer, Walter Rusch KE: The First 100 Years of State Railways in Namibia. TransNamib Museum, Windhoek 1997, p. 328, ISBN 0-86976-401-2 .
- ↑ Helmut Schroeter: The railways of the former German protected areas in Africa and their vehicles Verkehrswwissenschaftliche Lehrmittelgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main 1961 ( The vehicles of the German railways 7, ZDB -ID 593887-9 ), p. 45.
- ↑ Acquisition of the majority of shares in Otavi Minen AG on ots.at
- ↑ cf. Company announcements in the Federal Gazette of April 29, 2010
- ↑ cf. Company announcements in the Federal Gazette of March 26, 2010