In 2014 I was working as a researcher at Wits University's African Centre
for Migration and Society. With Dr. Aurelia Segatti, we were leading a
multi-year research and policy programme on labour migration in several
sectors including mining. As part of the fieldwork, our team visited an
industrial gold mine. It was the first time I had been inside a mine, and on
the drive west out of the city we passed neat rows of homes with beautiful
gardens and fences. Everything orderly, everything in its place. At the
entrance to the mine, the security guard found our names on a clipboard,
checked our identity cards, and waved us through. We were scheduled to
interview a manager, and he was a friendly Afrikaans man, neatly pressed
trousers, perfectly trimmed moustache, affable and paternal Much of our
discussion centred on security and the future of mining. How difficult it
is for the mine to remain profitable, and how much the company spends
on security to prevent illegal mining in its shafts. After similar interviews
at another two companies, it was clear to us that a broader field of study
of informal mining was desperately needed to understand labour mobility.
What followed was 6 years of work that has culminated in this book.
Trained as an anthropologist, my overall approach was to do an
ethnography of informal mining. After Aurelia left to eventually take up a
position with the International Labour Organisation on labour migration,
I put together a team of researchers: graduate students, including now,
Dr. Janet Munakamwe, who was then a doctoral student, and everyday
members of the community who we trained in basic research techniques.
