{"product_id":"golds-tarnished-legacy-von-sachin","title":"Gold's Tarnished Legacy","description":"The South African gold mining industry has historically been a major driver of the country’s economy\nas well as socio-political landscape (Smit, 2013). For over a century it has provided employment,\ninvestments, infrastructure, and taxes (Onn and Woodley, 2014; Schonfeld et al., 2014), and been\nresponsible for the development of dozens of cities and towns across the country, most notable of which\nis Johannesburg (Naicker et al., 2003; Durand, 2012; Ojelede et al., 2012; Kneen et al., 2015). Gold\nwas first discovered in the Witwatersrand Basin in 1886, a geographical feature that was once the largest\ngold resource in the world (Minerals Council South Africa, n.d.). This discovery transformed South\nAfrica’s agricultural economy into a mining economy, and opened the country up for international trade\n(Durand, 2012; Rand Refinery, 2013). However, the gold mining industry is also responsible for a\nlegacy of inequality, exploitation, damaged family structures, health impacts and environmental\ndegradation (Lawrence and Samkin, 2005; Durand, 2012; de Villiers et al., 2014; International Human\nRights Clinic (IHRC), 2016). Furthermore, it is important to note that apartheid is inextricably linked\nto the gold mining industry in particular (de Villiers et al., 2014; Benchmarks Foundation, 2017). The\nindustry has left a legacy of ownerless and abandoned mines and tailing storage facilities that\ncompromise the health and safety of nearby communities and eco-systems due to air, water and soil\npollution including but not limited to acid mine drainage (Winde and van der Walt, 2004; Duruibe et\nal., 2007; Durand, 2012; Bobbins, 2015). Furthermore, the gold industry is in decline and global\ncommodity markets are turbulent (Mudd, 2007; Hartnady, 2009; Chamber of Mines of South Africa,\n2017). From 2004 to 2016, South Africa’s percentage of global gold production fell from 13.5% to\n4.4% (Chamber of Mines of South Africa, 2017). Furthermore, the Witwatersrand reserves are nearly\nexhausted (Hartnady, 2009), and there are only an estimated 39 years of accessible gold reserves\nremaining (Statistics South Africa, 2018). It is thus clear that the South African gold industry is in a\nprecarious situation, and is running out of time to create a sustainable legacy.\nGovernments, civil society and, more recently, finance are putting increasing pressure on\nmining companies to account for their social and environmental impacts and to justify their continued\nexistence, forcing mining companies into adopting sustainability agendas (Mudd, 2008; Higgins and\nCoffey, 2016). Many mining companies, particularly multi-nationals, are reporting on their\nsustainability performance in publicly available annual reports, commonly termed sustainability\nreports, using standardised frameworks developed under the auspices of various responsible business\ninitiatives (Siew, 2015).\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9783384226761\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Autorenwelt Shop","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9783384226761","offer_id":48646294929733,"sku":"9783384226761","price":26.1,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/fa922483-b564-40b9-aff0-fd07268f1b21.jpg?v=1776492804","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/en\/products\/golds-tarnished-legacy-von-sachin","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}