A History of Gold Mining in South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania

Abstract

In this chapter Elbra provides an overview of the gold mining industry in Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania. The chapter begins with an overview of African gold mining, its relative importance to the global economy and developing African countries and concludes with an in-depth discussion of each country. It is demonstrated that all three countries share a history of poor natural resource governance, resulting in the negative outcomes associated with the resource curse. While in all three cases GDP per capita has increased in tandem with government revenues from mining, entrenched poverty, inequality and social malaise, such as a failure to improve health and educational outcomes, have remained. Overall, it is shown that these countries remain resource cursed.