Human Cost of Gold in South Africa - 3 BBC Reports

[LawrenceChard]

There were at least three related stories about gold and South Africa on BBC News today:

The dangerous world of illegal mining in South Africa

Every day they go to work, they have no idea whether they will return home alive. Poverty forces them beneath the earth to search for gold. Some will be arrested for illegal mining. Some will die.

BBC Africa Eye meets the migrants who risk everything to go deep underground in South Africa’s dangerous disused gold mines to make a living.

The human cost of South Africa's mining industry

More than 40 lawyers, representing hundreds of former and current mineworkers, have begun legal steps against South Africa's gold mining industry.

They say the miners contracted silicosis, an incurable lung disease, from years of working in the mines.

Photographs by Thom Pierce of some those affected were recently shown at an exhibition in Johannesburg.

The illegal gold fuelling gang battles in South Africa

The South African city of Johannesburg was built on enormous gold reef. Today, many of the mines have closed, but criminal gangs continue to work the disused and abandoned tunnels.

It is dangerous and often deadly, and as well as digging in the disused mines, heavily armed gangs also steal gold from the remaining working shafts.

The decline of the gold mining sector, unemployment, illegal migration, and poverty have all contributed to the growth of this criminal activity.

Probably all worth watching if we think gold costs too much...

Or we expect free postage!

😎

[Tn21]

There will always be a human cost to Gold mining. 

 

[LawrenceChard]

5 hours ago, Tn21 said:

There will always be a human cost to Gold mining. 

 

Not just mining...

I once caught my thumb in a gold Britannia tube I was closing.

😎

[RDHC]

15 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

There were at least three related stories about gold and South Africa on BBC News today:

The dangerous world of illegal mining in South Africa

Every day they go to work, they have no idea whether they will return home alive. Poverty forces them beneath the earth to search for gold. Some will be arrested for illegal mining. Some will die.

BBC Africa Eye meets the migrants who risk everything to go deep underground in South Africa’s dangerous disused gold mines to make a living.

The human cost of South Africa's mining industry

More than 40 lawyers, representing hundreds of former and current mineworkers, have begun legal steps against South Africa's gold mining industry.

They say the miners contracted silicosis, an incurable lung disease, from years of working in the mines.

Photographs by Thom Pierce of some those affected were recently shown at an exhibition in Johannesburg.

The illegal gold fuelling gang battles in South Africa

The South African city of Johannesburg was built on enormous gold reef. Today, many of the mines have closed, but criminal gangs continue to work the disused and abandoned tunnels.

It is dangerous and often deadly, and as well as digging in the disused mines, heavily armed gangs also steal gold from the remaining working shafts.

The decline of the gold mining sector, unemployment, illegal migration, and poverty have all contributed to the growth of this criminal activity.

Probably all worth watching if we think gold costs too much...

Or we expect free postage!

😎

Well done for highlighting these disturbing facts. I expect that, reasonably enough, we all hope to make a decent return on our gold investments but we should never ignore the human cost of mining it in some parts of the world.

[TheShinyStuff]

Unfortunately there has never been a shortage of people willing to exploit their fellow human beings. Probably never will be either. 😔 

[MJCOIN]

I wonder how much involvement China has in these mines?

[dicker]

South Africa is a mess and headed in the same direction as Zimbabwe.  

Inept, incompetent and corrupt governments.  The poorest always suffer most and are forced into this sort of work.

[LawrenceChard]

4 hours ago, MJCOIN said:

I wonder how much involvement China has in these mines?

Good question, probably a lot!

😎

3 hours ago, dicker said:

South Africa is a mess and headed in the same direction as Zimbabwe.  

Inept, incompetent and corrupt governments.  The poorest always suffer most and are forced into this sort of work.

Corrupt governments? 

Never!

😎

[MJCOIN]

37 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Good question, probably a lot!

😎

Corrupt governments? 

Never!

😎

The so-called BBC will not mention this though.....

[LawrenceChard]

There was also another BBC report about 

Crackdown on Peru's illegal mining camps

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-33562849

Dozens of illegal mining camps have been destroyed by authorities in Peru.

It follows a series of crackdowns on miners searching for gold in the rivers of the Amazon rainforest.

 

[dicker]

Illegal = unlicensed

Unlicensed = The Government doesn’t get a cut