JOHANNESBURG – South African police confirmed Tuesday a deadly new tragedy has struck the country’s persistent illegal mining crisis, with at least 14 artisanal miners found dead and dozens more injured at a closed mine in the North West province. The bodies of the deceased were recovered at the site located near Rustenburg, a major platinum mining center roughly 80 miles northwest of South Africa’s economic hub Johannesburg, according to official statements from the South African Police Service.
Authorities have not yet released additional details on what caused the latest deaths, but confirmed the provincial police commissioner was traveling to the remote mining site Tuesday to lead an on-site investigation into the incident.
Rustenburg sits at the heart of South Africa’s global-leading platinum industry, with the country holding more than 70% of the world’s known platinum reserves. But the region’s network of abandoned, company-owned mines has also become a hotbed for informal, unregulated mining activity that plagues the nation.
South Africa is home to an estimated tens of thousands of informal artisanal miners, widely known locally as zama zamas – a term that loosely translates to “chance takers” – who sneak into disused gold and platinum mines to scavenge for leftover mineral deposits to sell on the informal market. Operating entirely outside formal regulatory frameworks, these miners rarely have access to basic safety gear, structurally reinforced tunnels, or emergency support, and many will stay underground for consecutive weeks at a time to maximize their scavenging output.
Law enforcement and government officials have long labeled informal illegal mining as one of South Africa’s most intractable social and security challenges, with the trade deeply intertwined with transnational organized criminal syndicates that control much of the illegal mineral trade. Zama zamas typically operate in organized gangs, and violent turf battles between rival groups over access to abandoned mine sites are common across the country’s mining belt.
This latest fatal incident marks the second major disaster involving illegal mining in South Africa in less than a year. In late 2024, more than 80 miners died during a months-long standoff at a closed gold mine, where hundreds of informal workers became trapped underground after police surrounded the site to oust illegal operators. No widespread rescue effort was able to reach most of the trapped miners before they ran out of supplies.
In response to rising public outcry over organized crime linked to illegal mining, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a controversial nationwide crackdown earlier this year that included deploying military troops to crime-plagued mining regions. The 12-month operation lists illegal unregulated mining as one of its core priority targets, alongside other organized criminal activities that have strained state capacity in mineral-rich areas of the country.