The mines of Southern and Central Africa : an ecological framework

Abstract

The mines of Southern and Central Africa can be seen as a congeries of microenvironments whose suitability for human habitation has been transformed as the result of capital investment as constrained by government policies. Mine managers sought improved living conditions to enhance productivity but minority governments imposed strict controls on African migration, which allowed only a unisex labour force in the gold mines of South Africa whilst permitting family settlement in the copper mines of what is today Zambia and Zaire.