Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
· collected 2026-09-06 · by Tsitsi Bhobo
Rustenburg, South Africa – On August 13, a wall of soil collapsed and killed 14 miners, most of whom were believed to be undocumented migrants, at a disused mining site near Nkaneng, an informal settlement outside Rustenburg in South Africa’s mineral-rich North West province.
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most → collapse → province
“It happened in a flash, and the earth swallowed a dozen,” Lerothodi Nale*, a migrant from Lesotho who escaped the collapse and ran to alert nearby security guards, told Al Jazeera.
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who → happen → Jazeera
Without a passport, Nale left the scene afterwards, fearing arrest.
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Nale → leave → arrest
More miners could still be trapped underground, North West police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arthur Adams told journalists, including Al Jazeera.
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Adams → trap → Jazeera
The disaster has exposed a darker side of South Africa’s chrome wealth: an underground economy where vulnerable migrants, unemployed former mineworker and criminal groups converge around a lucrative mineral trade.
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migrants → expose → trade
Rustenburg sits above the Bushveld Igneous Complex, one of the world’s richest geological formations, containing vast deposits of platinum-group metals and chrome.
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Rustenburg → sit → metals
The region’s minerals have long powered industries including stainless steel production and advanced industrial applications.
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minerals → power → production
South Africa is the world’s largest chrome producer and exporter, with much of its ore feeding global supply chains, particularly China’s stainless steel industry.
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much → feed → chains
But alongside the formal mining sector, illegal extraction has expanded in parts of the country, including North West province, where authorities have raised concerns about unauthorised mining operations, environmental destruction and criminal groups exploiting abandoned and inactive mine sites.
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authorities → expand → sites
For migrants like Nale, these abandoned pits offer both opportunity and danger.
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pits → abandon → opportunity
“The disused mines are sitting graves with no geologists to confirm if rocks are still stable down there,” said metals governance expert Tapuwa Nhachi.
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Nhachi → sit → geologists
South Africa’s government has announced programmes to rehabilitate abandoned mines and close dangerous shafts, but critics say the scale of the response remains far below the challenge facing the country.
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scale → announce → country
Thousands of abandoned mine shafts remain across South Africa, creating opportunities for illegal operators and exposing workers to deadly conditions.
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Thousands → abandon → conditions
“Not a month goes without fatalities in abandoned mine holes,” Nhachi told Al Jazeera.
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Nhachi → go → Jazeera
Chrome is attractive to illegal operators because deposits can often be reached closer to the surface, lowering extraction costs compared with deeper underground mining.
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deposits → reach → mining
“For criminal networks, it becomes easier to extract, process and move the ore into supply chains,” environmental remediation expert Shamiso Mupara told Al Jazeera.
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Mupara → become → Jazeera
The result is an economy where profits are concentrated among those controlling equipment, transport routes and access to buyers, while miners take the greatest risks.
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miners → concentrate → risks
The underground pipeline
Nale describes a system that begins far beyond South Africa’s borders.
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that → describe → borders
Undocumented migrants from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, alongside unemployed South Africans including former mineworker, are recruited by intermediaries who provide transport money and promise work around Rustenburg’s chrome fields.
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who → include → fields
On arrival, Nale said, workers are divided into groups controlled by criminal networks that provide food, mining equipment and, he alleges, explosives before sending them underground.
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he → say → them
“At this juncture, we are held hostage by the alleged Maresha cartel, which, he says, takes 70 percent of our earnings and forces us to work in unsafe mines until we repay debts,” he said.
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he → hold → debts
Nale alleges that miners can be transferred between groups and forced to continue working underground until additional ore is extracted.
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ore → allege → groups
The existence and scale of individual criminal groups involved in illegal mining are difficult to independently verify, but South African authorities have repeatedly linked illegal mining to organised crime, including violence, weapons trafficking and illicit financial networks.
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authorities → involve → violence
Loren Landau, a migration expert at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said the combination of poverty, unemployment and weak enforcement has created a steady supply of vulnerable workers.
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combination → say → workers
“The pipeline sending scores of young male migrants to subterranean death does not pause because there are few viable job options left,” he told Al Jazeera.
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he → send → Jazeera
“As soon as this batch of miners dies or gets injured, more destitute men are on the bus to replace them.”
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men → die → them
At the gates of Marikana police station, which serves Nkaneng, Dineo Motho, 29, waited for news about her husband, Kgadi Ntuli, 35, who remained missing after the collapse.
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who → serve → collapse
Wrapped in a traditional Lesotho blanket against the winter cold, she had travelled about 400 kilometres (250 miles) overnight to South Africa after hearing about the disaster.
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she → wrap → disaster
“He left home in January to try his luck in Rustenburg chrome pits because with drying lands in Lesotho, there was no water to nourish our goats, crops or fruits.
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He → leave → goats
There were no jobs, no food,” she told Al Jazeera.
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she → be → Jazeera
Ntuli had been travelling between Lesotho and South Africa’s chrome fields, she said, earning enough money to support the family.
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she → travel → family
Her greatest hope was that he was among those who survived the collapse, but fled afterwards to avoid arrest.
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who → survive → arrest
For families like hers, survival itself can mean disappearing from authorities.
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survival → mean → authorities
Economic hardship and worsening environmental pressures in parts of Southern African have increased vulnerability, pushing some people towards dangerous informal work.
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hardship → worsen → work
The consequences are increasingly visible in communities surrounding South Africa’s mining zones.
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consequences → surround → zones
Mmanotshe Ramokoka, traditional leader of the Baphalane Traditional Council in North West province, said illegal mining has damaged farmland, threatened water supplies and created conflict between communities and criminal groups.
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mining → say → communities
“It’s an ecological warzone,” he told Al Jazeera.
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he → ’ → Jazeera
He said illegal processing sites have appeared near farming areas, with open pits endangering livestock and waste affecting local environments.
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pits → say → environments
“The gangs have millions to rent industrial equipment for stripping soil for chrome.
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gangs → have → chrome
Migrant diggers die for a tiny fraction of the profit,” Ramokoka said.
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Ramokoka → die → profit
…and 12 more, not listed.
