More than 300 artisanal gold miners in South Africa were reported dead between 20 as a result of collapsing tunnels, though the Zama Zamas maintain this number is vastly under-representative. “Sometimes on the way down you pass rocks and you think they are stable, but then when you are returning you see that those same rocks have fallen, and you think about how close you came to being crushed.” The experience of an illegal gold miner in South Africa is more often than not a harrowing one - speaking to the Investigative Journal prior to a 24-hour stint underground, 19-year-old Mqondisi Ndlovu said: “I’m scared sometimes. Today, the collective output of the group is estimated to be worth 21bn rand a year ($920m), with the majority of the gold mined ending up in Dubai.

This unexpectedly rapid depletion of the country’s gold capacity led to a mass exodus of mining companies which left their facilities abandoned but still just about operational, extending an opportunity to a few enterprising individuals who would become the very first Zama Zamas. Reports suggest South Africa’s gold industry is in serious jeopardy, however, as the nation’s Mineral Council recently announced 75% of mines were no longer profitable due to a steep decline in gold reserves, leading to multiple closures. The Zama Zamas emerged as South Africa’s gold mining companies began to leave the country (Credit: ENACT Africa) The country’s gold exports were valued at $3.8bn (£2.9bn) in 2005 and, according to the US Geological Survey, it has been home to roughly 50% of the world’s gold resources and 38% of its gold reserves over the past couple of decades. Right at the top of the list is South Deep, which is the second-largest gold mine in the world, followed by Mponeng, the tenth-largest, while the TauTona mine is the deepest, delving almost four kilometres beneath the Earth’s surface. With little to no alternatives, the group perseveres regardless - here we take a closer look at how the recession of South Africa’s mining industry was just the first chapter in what has since developed into a bloody and brutal illicit scramble for gold.Īs the most economically-developed country on its continent, South Africa is home to a strong power sector that comprises a swathe of highly-productive gold mines which together accounted for 12% of the world’s gold production as recently as 2005. Named after a Zulu term meaning “those who try to get something from nothing”, the 30,000-strong group scratch a blood-stained living harvesting what remains of the reserves in 6,000 abandoned gold mines scattered across the country.įorced to ply their trade in crumbling industrial shafts where a fatal collapse is just as likely as stumbling across a deposit worth the effort, they are perpetually preyed upon by a coterie of criminal cartels who often count the police among their number. South Africa has built a burgeoning national economy on its gold mining trade over the past few decades, but for the “Zama Zamas”, hunting for the precious mineral is a process just as synonymous with peril as profit.

The entrance to the Kroomdraai gold mine, one of the oldest in South Africa, located just a 40 minute drive north of the country’s capital city (Credit: Flickr/Andrew Roos) Crumbling mine shafts, gun-wielding gangs and crooked police are all part of the job for South Africa's Zama Zamas

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