Mining Matters: Resource and Mineral Extraction Across Africa

How do mining activities affect the communities around them? In what ways have mineral resources defined Africa and her people? How does the history of mining in a particular context influence contemporary mining practices? In what ways is mining embedded and linked to the environment and social fabric of particular places? And how are resources and mined materials embedded culturally? These are just some of the questions that the student-organised conference 'Mining Matters: Resource and Mineral Extraction Across Africa' intends to explore.

 

It is impossible to overstate the significance of mining and resource extraction in both the historical and contemporary context of Africa. By the late first millennium BC, West Africa already hosted significant regional gold trade and later became involved in early trans-Saharan trade networks; the early decisions of De Beers Mining Group in colonial Southern Africa have shaped the histories of the countries until today; African soil retains a great portion of the world’s resource wealth.

 

The conference brings together accomplished researchers, early career academics and students to present and discuss their current work over three days. It offers an opportunity to engage with and learn from each other and for an interested general audience to come and learn from the presenters. 

 

We are also thrilled to announce that the volume Gaping Holes: Towards Multispecies Histories and Ethnographies of Mining in Southern Africa (Brill; 2026), edited by Jan-Bart Gewald, Sabine Luning, and Harry Wels, will be launched at the conference.