“We must have labour,” declared John Gardiner Hamilton, then president of the erstwhile Chamber of Mines in 1912.
This declaration led to one of the most systematic and coercive labour migration systems — cheap labour, to be precise — as the state and capital colluded to ensure uninterrupted supply for SA’s gold mines.
The Southern Africa hinterland was scoured for this cheap labour, and by 1970 the gold mining industry alone employed 370,312 miners — of whom 93,203 came from Mozambique, 78,492 from Malawi and 63,988 from Lesotho.
At its peak, SA’s gold mining industry produced a hefty 1,000 tonnes of gold in 1970 when the average price was $35-$36 per troy ounce (one troy ounce is equivalent to 31.1 grams). Gold production decreased to about 400 tonnes in 2000 and to 100 tonnes by 2024 — a 90% decline from the 1970 production output.
At the height of the success of the cheap labour system in August 1987, SA’s gold mines employed 530,574 miners, before the historic National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike — which was a test of strength between industry and labour.
The gold industry won: some 11 miners died, 300 were injured and 400 were arrested before NUM accepted the Chamber of Mines’ original offer of a 15%-23% wage increase on August 30 1987.
Fast forward to 2025, and global trade uncertainty and geopolitics have surged gold prices to a record high above $3,300 per troy ounce in July 2025.
Gold has not lost its glitter, and is forecast to breach $4,000 per troy ounce in 2026. Yet despite this boon SA’s gold mine labour has decreased, with at least 51,200 jobs lost between 2011 and 2023. In 2024 the total of direct employees in the gold mines was 91,932.
This drastic reduction in employment was also accompanied by the closure of gold mines, thus leading to abandoned, derelict and ownerless mines and their associated social and environmental problems. After more than a century of large-scale industrial mining activities, SA’s gold mines have reached prohibitive mining depths of some 4km. This is compounded by declining ore yields with limited commercial extraction viability.
This has led to thousands of mine closures as deep shafts become exceptionally costly for mechanised operations. This reality has created opportunities for artisanal mining activities in abandoned, ownerless and derelict mines — often undertaken by former miners who have lost their employment opportunities in the same shafts with the end of mechanised mining operations. Artisanal miners can extract commercial gold value where mechanised mining investments would be futile.
By 2024 it was estimated that there were 6,000 abandoned, ownerless, derelict and unmaintained mines in SA (against 1,856 operational mines) from which at least 34,000 illegal micro and survivalist miners or “zama zamas” eke out a marginal existence from artisanal mining.
It is not practical for the state to police these derelict mines to prevent illegal artisanal mining operations. Such operations take the form of labour-intensive mining activity often undertaken by highly skilled and experienced former miners with basic tools to extract mineral ore.
By its very nature, mining is inherently dangerous. The stubborn persistence of artisanal mining is encouraged by the reality of time delays and associated costs of formal mining right application which are beyond the affordability of ordinary South Africans. There is therefore urgency of policy review towards formalising artisanal mining to mitigate the inherent risks of inevitable artisanal mining operations.
A study by the Institute for Security Studies estimated that about 30,000 illegal miners produced $782m (R14bn in today’s value) worth of gold per annum.
How this gold is marketed, exported through the international intermediary of buyers and associated tax revenue losses to the state is a subject for another day. In many parts of the world where artisanal mining is regulated, it employs large numbers of people — thus providing an important source of income for sustainable livelihoods, albeit with high environmental costs and a poor health and safety record.
For instance, legal artisanal mining contributed $224m to the Kenyan economy in 2022 while employing over 250,000 miners. Further, while the Democratic Republic of Congo produces over 70% of global cobalt, 20%-30% is mined through artisanal mining.
There is, therefore, a compelling argument for the legitimate recognition of artisanal mining, thus overcoming the health and safety gaps through the introduction of basic safety and employment regulation. The next step will be to address product supply chain transparency and revenue collection.
The recognition of artisanal mining will spur economic activity in derelict mining towns by encouraging legitimate mining operations — thus preventing further urban decay and uncontrolled rural to urban migration. There is consensus that artisanal mining can be a critical lever for poverty alleviation and rural development, ensuring optimal use of small mineral deposits and recognition of their economic contribution.
Trends in the growth of SA’s artisanal mining in the last few years give reason to believe that operations will continue. After all, about 90% of the world’s mining workforce today are artisanal miners. There is an abundance of willing and able, even skilled, unemployed potential artisanal miners, while there are equally abundant derelict and closed mines.
In the context of SA’s current prohibitive unemployment rate of 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025, according to Stats SA, it is reasonable to expect any available avenue for employment/income activity to become a dependable consideration. It is matter of fact versus value, and in the daily struggle to survive the legitimacy of mining operations and their inherent dangers becomes secondary.
Artisanal miners may possess the necessary skills — and may have the ability to acquire skills to become part of the mainstream mining activities. It is therefore worth reviewing the legal, policy and regulatory framework to enable artisanal mining to become legitimate operations.
• Dr Tshitereke is an honorary professor at Unisa’s Thabo Mbeki School of Public and International Affairs.
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