At least 14 miners, most believed to be undocumented migrants, were killed on August 13 when a wall of soil collapsed at a disused mining site near Nkaneng, an informal settlement outside Rustenburg in South Africa's mineral-rich North West province. Rescue efforts are ongoing, but police say more miners could still be trapped underground.

Lerothodi Nale*, a migrant from Lesotho who escaped the collapse, told Al Jazeera: "It happened in a flash, and the earth swallowed a dozen." Without a passport, Nale left the scene afterwards, fearing arrest. North West police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arthur Adams told journalists that more miners could still be trapped underground.

The disaster has exposed a darker side of South Africa's chrome wealth: an underground economy where vulnerable migrants, unemployed former mineworkers, and criminal groups converge around a lucrative mineral trade. Rustenburg sits above the Bushveld Igneous Complex, one of the world's richest geological formations, containing vast deposits of platinum-group metals and chrome.

South Africa is the world's largest chrome producer and exporter, with much of its ore feeding global supply chains, particularly China's stainless steel industry. But alongside the formal mining sector, illegal extraction has expanded in parts of the country, including North West province. The government has announced programmes to rehabilitate abandoned mines, but critics say the scale of the response remains far below the challenge.

Metals governance expert Tapuwa Nhachi said: "The disused mines are sitting graves with no geologists to confirm if rocks are still stable down there." He added that not a month goes without fatalities in abandoned mine holes. Chrome is attractive to illegal operators because deposits can often be reached closer to the surface, lowering extraction costs. Environmental remediation expert Shamiso Mupara noted that for criminal networks, it becomes easier to extract, process, and move the ore into supply chains.

Nale describes a system that begins far beyond South Africa's borders. Undocumented migrants from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, alongside unemployed South Africans, are recruited by intermediaries who provide transport money and promise work. On arrival, workers are divided into groups controlled by criminal networks. Nale alleges that the so-called Maresha cartel takes 70 percent of earnings and forces workers to labor in unsafe mines until debts are repaid.

Migration expert Loren Landau from the University of the Witwatersrand said: "The combination of poverty, unemployment, and weak enforcement has created a steady supply of vulnerable workers. As soon as this batch of miners dies or gets injured, more destitute men are on the bus to replace them."

At the gates of Marikana police station, 29-year-old Dineo Motho waited for news about her husband, Kgadi Ntuli, 35, who remained missing after the collapse. She had traveled about 400 kilometers overnight from Lesotho after hearing about the disaster. "He left home in January to try his luck in Rustenburg chrome pits because with drying lands in Lesotho, there was no water to nourish our goats, crops or fruits. There were no jobs, no food," she told Al Jazeera.

Traditional leader Mmanotshe Ramokoka of the Baphalane Traditional Council said illegal mining has damaged farmland, threatened water supplies, and created conflict between communities and criminal groups. "It's an ecological warzone," he said. He noted that gangs have millions to rent industrial equipment for stripping soil for chrome, while migrant diggers die for a tiny fraction of the profit.

South Africa's government launched Operation Vala Umgodi in 2023 to target illegal mining. Police have rejected allegations of widespread complicity and say they are taking action. Lieutenant-Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula of the Hawks said 23 illegal mining cases had been registered in the Rustenburg area over the past two years, with 63 accused charged. Police seized 20 trucks and 15 excavators linked to illegal mining.

But enforcement alone may not end the cycle. As long as poverty pushes workers towards dangerous pits and criminal groups control access to chrome wealth, the cycle is likely to continue. Landau said: "Nothing scares the hungry."

Source: www.aljazeera.com