Richards Bay, South Africa

Richards Bay is South Africa’s largest harbor. It is situated on an 11.5 square mile (30 square kilometer) lagoon off the Mhlatuze River on the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal. It began as a makeshift harbor set up by the Commodore of the Cape, Sir Frederick Richards during the Boer War of 1879. In 1935 the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was created to protect the ecology around the lagoon and by 1943 it expanded into the Richards Bay Park. The town was laid out on the shores of the lagoon in 1954 and proclaimed a town in 1969. In 1976 Richards Bay harbor was converted into a deep-water harbor with railway and an oil/gas pipeline linking the port to Johannesburg. Later, an aluminum smelter and fertilizer plant was erected at the harbor. Titanium is mined from the sand dunes close to the lagoon. Until about 1870 the economy of South Africa was almost entirely based on agriculture. With the discovery of diamonds and gold in the late 19th century, mining became the foundation for rapid economic development. In the 20th century the country’s economy was diversified, so that by 1945 manufacturing was the leading contributor to the gross national product (GNP). By the 1990s, services contributed almost 60% of the GNP, while industry contributed over 35% and agriculture only about 5%. Tourism now plays an integral part in the local as well as national economy.

The port of Richards Bay consists of a deep-water harbor for bulk carriers which have been developed from the northeast part of Umhlatuzi Lagoon in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. This lagoon is situated in Richards Bay Park which is a nature reserve and sanctuary. It is the closest port to the Witwatersrand, the main industrial area of the Republic of South-Africa and is connected by railway to the coalfields of Transvaal. The Richards Bay Coal Terminal is the largest coal export facility in the world with a planned capacity of 91 million tons per year by the first half of 2009.