South Africa’s chrome riches fuel a deadly underground economy

Rustenburg, South Africa – On August 13, a wall of soil collapsed and killed 14 miners, most of whom were believed to be undocumented migrants, at a disused mining site near Nkaneng, an informal settlement outside Rustenburg in South Africa’s mineral-rich North West province.

“It happened in a flash, and the earth swallowed a dozen,” Lerothodi Nale*, a migrant from Lesotho who escaped the collapse and ran to alert nearby security guards, told Al Jazeera.

Without a passport, Nale left the scene afterwards, fearing arrest. More miners could still be trapped underground, North West police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arthur Adams told journalists, including Al Jazeera.

The disaster has exposed a darker side of South Africa’s chrome wealth: an underground economy where vulnerable migrants, unemployed former mineworker 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. The region’s minerals have long powered industries including stainless steel production and advanced industrial applications.

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, where authorities have raised concerns about unauthorised mining operations, environmental destruction and criminal groups exploiting abandoned and inactive mine sites.

For migrants like Nale, these abandoned pits offer both opportunity and danger.