Dying for Gold: Who Killed the Miners of Buffelsfontein?

Dying for Gold: Who Killed the Miners of Buffelsfontein?

Once, the Buffelsfontein mine in South Africa employed 18,000 people. But the mine’s closure in 2013 didn’t mean the mining stopped. Instead, an abandoned Buffels became a target for “zama-zamas,” who hunted for gold in its deepest and farthest reaches. This was a world of criminal gangs and hard labor—and it got even more worse when the police stopped letting food in or people out. For The Economist‘s magazine, Liam Taylor tells the horrifying …