Rogers, Mathew

An employee of the South West Africa Company, and the first European to reach the Tsumeb outcrop.  

In January 1893, Mathew Rogers, on an expedition sent from London, arrived at the Green Hill at Tsumeb and stayed for approximately one year.  It was Rogers who first assessed the potential of the Tsumeb deposit. During this period he sank two shafts with crosscuts, each of them 20m deep and conducted assays of the ore that yielded values of c.10% copper and c.43% lead with significant credits of silver and gold (Söhnge, 1967).

He reported to his company: “In the whole of my experience, I have never seen such a sight as was presented before my view at Soomep, and I very much doubt that I shall ever see another in any other locality.  The outcrop is in a valley formed by gradually sloping hills.  As if the subterranean forces had made one sudden and special effort to force an entrance through the crust of the earth, a large rent is made.  This rent has been filled in probably by aqueous solutions with minerals, having as its chief matrix quartz.  In this instance the minerals as far as can be seen are different ores of copper and lead.  In process of time – by erosion and denudation – the surrounding strata composing the containing rock have been removed, leaving the fissure vein standing in an inclined position – in some places being 40 feet in height – with the green and blue colours of chrysocolla conspicuously covering it.”    

Mathewrogersite is named in his honour.