Richards Bay
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Richards Bay Cwebeni Richardsbaai |
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Richards Bay
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 Richards Bay
Richards Bay
Richards Bay
Richards Bay shown within KwaZulu-Natal
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| Coordinates: 28°48′00″S 32°06′00″E / 28.80000°S 32.10000°ECoordinates: 28°48′00″S 32°06′00″E / 28.80000°S 32.10000°E | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | KwaZulu-Natal |
| District | King Cetshwayo |
| Municipality | uMhlathuze |
| Established | 1969 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 142.78 km2 (55.13 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 57,387 |
| • Density | 400/km2 (1,000/sq mi) |
| Racial makeup (2011) | |
| • Black African | 48.0% |
| • Coloured | 3.2% |
| • Indian/Asian | 18.2% |
| • White | 30.1% |
| • Other | 0.4% |
| First languages (2011) | |
| • Zulu | 40.6% |
| • English | 33.8% |
| • Afrikaans | 21.5% |
| • Other | 4.1% |
| Postal code (street) | 3900 |
| PO box | 3900 |
| Area code | 035 |
Richards Bay (Afrikaans: Richardsbaai) is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which gives it one of the country's largest harbours.
The town began as a makeshift harbour that was set up by Commodore of the Cape, Sir Frederick Richards during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. In 1935 the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was created to protect the ecology around the lagoon and later 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 harbour was converted into a deep water harbour with railway and an oil/gas pipeline linking the port to Johannesburg.
The South African Government decided in 1965 to build a deepsea harbour at Richards Bay, about 180 kilometres north of Durban. Construction work began in 1972 and four years later, on 1 April 1976, the new harbour was opened. The residential area of Richards Bay developed north of the harbour. Meerensee, started in 1970, was the first suburb. It was followed by Arboretum in 1975 and VeldenVlei in 1980. All three suburbs catered exclusively for Whites in accordance with the existing laws of apartheid. A township for Blacks was developed at Esikhaweni, fifteen kilometres south of Richards Bay. Residential areas for Indians and coloureds were opened after 1985 west of VeldenVlei. All the suburbs of Richards Bay together (excluding the black township of Esikhaweni) had a population of about 20 000 in 1990.
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. In 2007 annual throughput was 66.12 million tons.
Two aluminium smelters, Hillside Aluminum and Bayside Aluminium are operated by BHP Billiton. BHP has recently sold their interest in Hillside to South32. A fertiliser plant operated by Foskor has been erected at the harbour. Iron ore, rutile (titanium oxide) and zircon are mined from the sand dunes close to the lagoon by Richards Bay Minerals, a part of the Rio Tinto group. Local exports include coal, aluminium, titanium and other heavy minerals, granite, ferrochrome, paper pulp, woodchips and phosphoric acid. Richards Bay is, alongside Rustenberg, South Africa's fastest-developing city. It is a fast-growing industrial centre that has been able to maintain its ecological diversity.
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Wikipedia