Boom2Dust blog: Mining Dumps and evading Buffalo soldiers

Hendrik De Beer Groenewald has written a new blog post for the Boom2Dust project, a comparative study among three industrial mining centres in southern Africa between 1870 and 2020.

With the descriptive and engaging tone characteristic of the previous posts in the blog, De Beer takes the reader to an immersive excursion to a lead and zinc mining dump in Central Africa. It all starts after a sleepless night, when he sets out on a journey with a team of informal miners, and the early drive reveals a busy landscape of heavy traffic and high-density suburbs. The group stops at a crumbling colonial-era house which used to be the residence of a mine officer, now a staging point for the day's illegal mining operation.

When they arrive at the mine dump, the writer is shocked by the barren, desolate landscape - a legacy of mismanagement and nationalisation. The miners start working, digging through slag heaps with makeshift gear, while searching for leftover metal deposits. The work is hard and dusty, and by early afternoon, tensions flare due to an unexpected water shortage, leading to a confrontation which will make the group disband soon after. Only one miner returns the next day, revealing internal disputes over leadership and profit-sharing.

All in all, De Beer comes to two main realisations: first, his presence reduces the miners' usual operating costs - no more bribing to guards, buying water or hiring transport. Second, his experience sheds light on the instability and harsh conditions of informal mining and the fragile alliances that underpin it.

Read the full blog here.