Gold and Diamond Mining of Africa Essay

* Diamond minelaying in Africa Ever since the Kimberley adamant ten-strike of 1868, conspiracy Africa has been a institution loss leader in diamond production. The primary southeastern African sources of diamonds, including seven large diamond mines around the country, are controlled by the De Beers unify Mines Company. In 2003, De Beerss operations accounted for 94% of the nations total diamond output of 11,900,000 carats. Nicky Oppenheimer, the current Chairman of DeBeers. * The bearing of the miners The search for diamonds is not exactly easy. legion(predicate) miners and diamond diggers in sub-Saharan Africa lead great distances to find work and march on to gruelingly languish hours for low fee or sometimes no wages in substandard conditions. Child labor has long been a problem in free diamond mines, especially during times of war. Children wealthy person often been exploited to do jibe work because they are small affluent to be lowered into small, narrow pits by ropes to dig out sacks of dirt, which is in curve washed by another(prenominal) barbarianren in search of diamonds.During Sierra Leones 10-year genteel war, children were often apply as soldiers and workers in the rich Koidu diamond mines that funded the countrys rebels. USAID launched the Kono Peace Diamond Alliance in 2002 to try to improve the working conditions in the mines particularly for children. But it is an uphill betrothal across Africa to get children who are both(prenominal) family breadwinners, or fending for themselves or conscripted into slave-like labor to impede working and go to school. A child solider in Africa Land is often readable and vegetated areas dug up to create frank pit mines in he cannonball along search for diamond deposits, leaving them irreconcilable for other farming activities.Informal exploit in hilly areas also leads to wearing and, in turn, flooding. The salt, heavy minerals and chemical products from excavation equipment can run off into rivers and choke vital water sources for mining communities and mess living downstream. * metal(prenominal) mining in Africa entropy Africa accounted for 15% of the worlds bills production in 2002 and 12% in 2005, though the nation had produced as much as 30% of world output as recently as 1993. Despite declining production, due south Africas bullion exports were valued at $3. billion USD in 2005.Almost 50% of the worlds favorable reserves are run aground in south-central Africa. Barrick Gold grass is the largest pure favourable miningcompany in the world, with its furnish in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and four regional communication channel units (RBUs) located in Australia, Africa, North the States and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Saudi Arabia, Papua novel Guinea, the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa,Pakistan, Colombia, genus Argentina and Tanz ania. For 2008, it produced 7. million ounces of silver at a cash cost of US $443/ounce. As of December 31, 2008 its proven and probable gold mineral reserves stand at 138. 5 million ounces. Peter monk, the friend of gold mining* The life of gold miners The unknown factor in South Africa is the future of labor costs. The mines employ some(prenominal) hundred thousand miners underground half(a) the production costs are for wages. about of the gold miners are members of the black topic Union of Mineworkers, which is pressing hard both for political and social clear, and for better wages and working conditions for its members.But the long-delayed beginnings of political reform in South Africa in the new-fangled 1980s coincided with a slump in gold footings. The South African gold mines, many of them a century old, were by then the worlds deepest, and were technically real difficult and financially very expensive to operate even in spite of the low wages gainful to the miners . The quality of the ore was slowly dropping the sightly gold ore now averages less than 5 grams of gold per tonne. Winnie Mandela is on record as saying to black miners, You hold the flourishing key to our liberation.The moment you stop take gold and diamonds, that is the moment you will be free. She could not be more wrong. If the gold mines close, the economic disaster will be visited most on the poorer section of society, the blacks. The South African reforms were predicated absolutely on a stable and healthy economy. In 1999, the price of gold dropped to a low efflorescence around $250/oz. This was very bad word for South African gold companies, South African gold miners, and the South African government. Gold companies scrambled to reorganize and contour their operations.By the time the price over again reached $290 again in early 2000, the gold industry had changed dramatically, in South Africa and globally. health problems of gold miners who worked underground inclu de change magnitude life expectancy increase frequence of cancer of the trachea, bronchus, lung, stomach, and liver increase frequence of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), silicosis, and pleural diseases increased frequency of insect-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever fever noise-induced hearing loss increased prevalence of certain bacterial and viral diseases and diseases of the blood, skin, and musculoskeletal system.These problems are briefly documented in gold miners from Australia, North America, South America, and Africa. In general, HIV infection or excessive alcohol and tobacco pulmonary tuberculosis tended to exacerbate existing health problems. Miners who used elemental mercury to amalgamate and pull in gold were heavily contaminated with mercury. Among individuals undetermined occupationally, concentrations of mercury in their air, fish diet, hair, urine, blood, and other tissues significantly exceeded all criteria proposed by assorted national and inte rnational regulatory agencies for security system of human health.