Mining has been central to the socialand economic narrative of Southern Africa, and has been akey provider of investment, employment, government revenueand infrastructure in the region. In South Africa, theJohannesburg-Pretoria metropolitan area, which serves as theregion's economic and financial hub, developed becauseof the local gold supply. In the early years, miningdeveloped on the back of migrant workers from acrossSouthern Africa who toiled in the mines under poorconditions. Many ex-miners suffer from vocational diseasesto this day. While mining has helped build the economies ofSouthern Africa, it has come at social and environmentalcosts that cast a long shadow. Inequality is also high inmany Southern African countries, suggesting that mining hasnot translated into inclusive growth. This report attemptsto examine and weigh the various benefits and costs thatmining has brought to the Southern Africa region. Datalimitations are significant, restricting authoritativeconclusions on whether the benefits from mining are positiveor negative, on balance, for Southern African societies. Theemphasis of this report is thus on taking stock of variousbenefits and costs associated with mining, while drawing onavailable information and thought experiments to highlightthe potential trade-offs and how they affect stakeholdergroups: workers, investors, governments, communities, andthe rest of the economy. The countries this report focuseson are Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, South Africa,Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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