Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa

Mining has been central to the social and economic narrative of Southern Africa, and has been a key provider of investment, employment, government revenue and infrastructure in the region. In South Africa, the Johannesburg-Pretoria metropolitan are...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/506751562777260359/Digging-Beneath-the-Surface-An-Exploration-of-the-Net-Benefits-of-Mining-in-Southern-Africa
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32107
id okr-10986-32107
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-321072021-05-25T09:26:21Z Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa World Bank MINING INDIGENOUS POPULATION ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT VALUE ADDED EXPORTS MULTIPLIERS COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT SOCIAL DYNAMICS EQUITY RESOURCE ALLOCATION Mining has been central to the social and economic narrative of Southern Africa, and has been a key provider of investment, employment, government revenue and infrastructure in the region. In South Africa, the Johannesburg-Pretoria metropolitan area, which serves as the region's economic and financial hub, developed because of the local gold supply. In the early years, mining developed on the back of migrant workers from across Southern Africa who toiled in the mines under poor conditions. Many ex-miners suffer from vocational diseases to this day. While mining has helped build the economies of Southern Africa, it has come at social and environmental costs that cast a long shadow. Inequality is also high in many Southern African countries, suggesting that mining has not translated into inclusive growth. This report attempts to examine and weigh the various benefits and costs that mining has brought to the Southern Africa region. Data limitations are significant, restricting authoritative conclusions on whether the benefits from mining are positive or negative, on balance, for Southern African societies. The emphasis of this report is thus on taking stock of various benefits and costs associated with mining, while drawing on available information and thought experiments to highlight the potential trade-offs and how they affect stakeholder groups: workers, investors, governments, communities, and the rest of the economy. The countries this report focuses on are Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 2019-07-16T20:58:54Z 2019-07-16T20:58:54Z 2019-06 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/506751562777260359/Digging-Beneath-the-Surface-An-Exploration-of-the-Net-Benefits-of-Mining-in-Southern-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32107 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Mining, Oil & Gas Africa
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic MINING
INDIGENOUS POPULATION
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
VALUE ADDED
EXPORTS
MULTIPLIERS
COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
SOCIAL DYNAMICS
EQUITY
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
spellingShingle MINING
INDIGENOUS POPULATION
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
VALUE ADDED
EXPORTS
MULTIPLIERS
COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
SOCIAL DYNAMICS
EQUITY
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
World Bank
Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa
geographic_facet Africa
description Mining has been central to the social and economic narrative of Southern Africa, and has been a key provider of investment, employment, government revenue and infrastructure in the region. In South Africa, the Johannesburg-Pretoria metropolitan area, which serves as the region's economic and financial hub, developed because of the local gold supply. In the early years, mining developed on the back of migrant workers from across Southern Africa who toiled in the mines under poor conditions. Many ex-miners suffer from vocational diseases to this day. While mining has helped build the economies of Southern Africa, it has come at social and environmental costs that cast a long shadow. Inequality is also high in many Southern African countries, suggesting that mining has not translated into inclusive growth. This report attempts to examine and weigh the various benefits and costs that mining has brought to the Southern Africa region. Data limitations are significant, restricting authoritative conclusions on whether the benefits from mining are positive or negative, on balance, for Southern African societies. The emphasis of this report is thus on taking stock of various benefits and costs associated with mining, while drawing on available information and thought experiments to highlight the potential trade-offs and how they affect stakeholder groups: workers, investors, governments, communities, and the rest of the economy. The countries this report focuses on are Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa
title_short Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa
title_full Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa
title_fullStr Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa
title_full_unstemmed Digging Beneath the Surface : An Exploration of the Net Benefits of Mining in Southern Africa
title_sort digging beneath the surface : an exploration of the net benefits of mining in southern africa
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/506751562777260359/Digging-Beneath-the-Surface-An-Exploration-of-the-Net-Benefits-of-Mining-in-Southern-Africa
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32107
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