Moving graves and people for coal mines: the devastating costs of mining in South Africa: About 80% of South Africa’s electricity still comes from burning coal. The country’s 108 coal mines have resulted in many communities being forced off their land from the 1970s to date. They have not only lost their homes and land, …
Informal mining in South Africa is here to stay. Police brutality won’t end it – here’s what will: In mid-January 2024 over 1,000 hunger-weakened miners exited two abandoned mine shafts in Stilfontein, near Johannesburg in South Africa. They had been starved out by the police in Operation Vala Umgodi — meaning “plug the hole” – …
Giant freshwater aquifer in southern Africa is under threat from mining: A huge underground water resource the size of Austria, the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System, stretches for 87,000km² across Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. It supplies 50,000 people in several towns with water pure enough to drink, and is their only source of water. But …
South Africa’s climate battle: mining district exposes gaps in emissions control: In South Africa, the new 2024 Climate Change Act requires local governments to plan responses to global warming. These local authorities should find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions where possible, such as from their bus services, and reduce their use of electricity that …
Mining must become more responsible and sustainable. Where hi-tech solutions fit in: Digital technologies can make mining more sustainable. Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock/For editorial use only If you visit a commercial mining operation anywhere in the world today, some sights and sounds – workers descending in elevators to underground shafts, the roar of truck engines – will …
Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group seeks local power in DRC, not just control over mining operations: The violence wrought by the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 Movement is often narrowly framed as intended to control eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s resource-rich mining sites. The rebel group launched its most recent offensive in 2021 and currently controls vast …
Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer, but it has an illegal mining issue: 5 essential reads: Ghana is one of the world’s gold hotspots. It is Africa’s largest producer of gold and it ranks sixth globally. In 2023, 4 million ounces were produced. It is essential to Ghana’s economy, contributing around 7% of gross domestic …
African countries lost control to foreign mining companies – the 3 steps that allowed this to happen: Within a few years of independence, African governments asserted sovereignty over their metal and mineral resources. Prior to this, the resources were exploited by European mining corporations. Since the 1990s, transnational corporations have once again become the dominant …
Senghenydd colliery disaster: how Britain’s worst mining tragedy revealed the true price of coal: Miners working at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, south Wales, were in the middle of their morning shifts 2000ft below the ground when a massive explosion ripped through the deep pit at 8.10am. A spark from an electric bell had ignited …
Welsh mining towns had alternative currencies 200 years ago – here’s what the crypto world could learn from them: A halfpenny token issued by the Parys Mining Company of Anglesey in 1788. The hooded druid design was used for many years and was the first of hundreds of token designs. BrandonBigheart/Wikimedia You can also read …
Ghana’s informal mining harms health and the land – but reforms must work with people, not against them: Poverty is prevalent in most gold mining communities in Ghana. Wikimedia Commons Artisanal small-scale mining has been practised in Ghana for over a century. In 2018, small-scale miners generated 2.1 million ounces of gold, accounting for 43.1% …
Harry Oppenheimer biography shows the South African mining magnate’s hand in economic policies: The late South African mining tycoon, Harry Oppenheimer. Harry Frederick Oppenheimer in his Johannesburg office. (Photo by William Campbell/Sygma via Getty Images In Harry Oppenheimer: Diamonds, Gold and Dynasty, his outstanding biography of the South African mining magnate who died in 2000, …
Gold mining is one of the world’s most destructive and unnecessary industries – here’s how to end it: Two trucks transport gold ore from Barrick Cowal Gold Mine in New South Wales, Australia. Jason Benz Bennee/Shutterstock The 16th-century King Ferdinand of Spain sent his subjects abroad with the command: “Get gold, humanely if possible, but at …
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Mining and armed conflict threaten eastern DRC’s biodiversity in a complex web: Artisanal miners take a break on a mountaintop that is being mined for cassiterite south-west of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2017. Griff Tapper/AFP via Getty Images The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) conflict-affected eastern provinces are home to numerous protected areas. …
Climate change action could set off a copper mining boom: how Zambia can make the most of it: Batches of copper sheets stored in a warehouse at Mopani mines, Mufilira, Zambia. Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images At last year’s US Africa leaders summit in Washington the US signed an historic memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the …
Cumbrian coal: the 18th-century poem that perfectly encapsulated Whitehaven’s mining culture: Whitehaven, Cumbria, Showing Flatt Hall by Matthias Read (1730-1735). Yale Center for British Art The debates waged over the opening of the Woodhouse Colliery in Whitehaven, Cumbria, have laid bare starkly different views about the steps the UK should take to honour its net …
Ghana’s illegal mining continues because the rules and reality are disconnected: Illegal gold mining is spreading rapidly in Ghana Wikimedia Commons/Flickr Artisanal and small-scale mining – a low-tech, indigenous mining subsector – is taking on increasing economic importance in many developing countries. Over 150 million people worldwide are estimated to derive their livelihoods from this …