What price would you put on a diamond or even gold, is certainly not the economy of an entire country. That is the case in South Africa with mining being their fuel to boost their economy. Their economy needed the boost due to political instability burying the country into the ground. Being the fuel that helped South Africa’s GDP raise by 20% it has helped this country improve so much over the years.
Political instability is one of the key factors that has and still makes South Africa so dependent on the mining industry. There is an excessive amount of poverty in South Africa due to an unemployment rate of 22.7%. The unemployment is high for several reasons, the first being racial discrepancies. In South Africa it has always been one race is superior over the other. Taking that into account when it comes to jobs a whole race would not be hired for the job just because of the color of their skin. The Second factor is the lack of education so the community does not have the knowledge to do the job. Third, is lifestyle of tribal people. The tribal people in South Africa have not adjusted to the lifestyle of people in the society. On average they hunt for food and look for materials that will be helpful; for instance, wood, clay and coal. Therefore the tribal people are in poverty because they do not use money to support themselves. That is why political instability is holding the South African economy back and making it reliant on their mining industry.
Mining in the past has helped give the South African economy a direction to follow and have a solid bases to build off of. Diamonds were first discovered in 1867 in Johannesburg by a Dutch farmer which was the beginning of South Africa’s expanding economy. 1886 the gold industry star...
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...quality. The chemical spills will also effect the water supply. They had decreased the death rate due to mining to under 500 in 1996. A decade later it had decreased to under 200 deaths. Over time the government has been able to make working in the mines safer for the community. The mining industry has created a negative effect on the health of the workers but the community is trying to solve that problem.
Over all the mining industry has had a positive effect on South Africa. It has caused positive relationships with neighboring countries, improve the economy of South Africa in the past, and is still improving the economy now. The mining industry has helped South Africa break through the political instability that has been holding it back. Even though there are a few problems the mining industry is causing it is over all helping South Africa be a better country.
Natives in the country of Sierra Leone, Africans were constantly around these diamonds and couldn't probably care less. They were as unappealing as the rocks on the side of the road. Europeans then made their way into this country and one five-letter word took over them completely. This five-letter word is GREED. They basically "lost it" and began what was soon to be this horrible mistreatment of Africans. The diamonds were discovered in the 1930"s and the African who dug and excavated to find these rocks were basically not being paid anything but needless to say merchants and even these heartless rebels were kicking back, relaxing as the money poured in for them left, and right. The Europeans then figured out that this stone was the perfect way of currency. The diamond is extremely valuable and can be great in exchange for things such as ammunition so that...
In “ “Blood Diamonds” and Africa’s Armed Conflicts in the Post – Cold War Era, “ Orogun (2004) said that diamonds are referring as “clean stones”. This article explains about the black market is really happening in African. I am using this article to support how the black market of diamond trades is still not regulated, and they defined it as “licit” trade.
We are largely dependant on copper mining for most of our national income is derived from that activity..The are where we mine are mostly known for the copper and are called the copperbelt.The area also has a great potential for farming but due to the pollution and the large employment intake of the mines,the farming in the area has been subdued. To such lower levels.The people in the area are not very concern about what will happen next should the mines come to an end. The mines have also been working on programmes that will help the inhabitants to live on even after the end of the mines hence the creation of a lot of sports facilities,hospitals and funding a lot more other non mining The people in the area are not concern of the produce in the mine apart from the fact that the mine will employ them.they only get to get the produce from the other products thqt are manufuctured using
In a typical year, the mining industry is responsible for almost 20 per cent of Canada's total export earnings3 (See Appendix A). As for the employment rate, over 70 per cent of the mines are owned by Canadians and approximately 108,000 Canadians are directly employed in the mining industry4. Mining is very important in Canadian life. Not only do the products power the family car and heat the family home, the manufacturing sector, the high tech industries and even the better known resource industries are all dependent, in some way, on the mining industry. The mining industry will continue to be an important support to the economy. Mining is taking full advantage of the quick expansion of computers and microelectronics.
Some of the highest producing diamond mines are countries in Africa. Countries that had some of the highest rate of conflict were Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The ...
An estimated 1 million diamond miners in Africa earn less than $1 a dollar a day (Brilliant Earth n.d.) Children as young as 8 forgo school for daily wages ranging between $0.15- $0.60 (The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School 2009). According to Adele Farquhar, a man fighting for legal ownership of a diamond mine, the problem isn’t people mining for precious diamonds, it’s those buying the diamonds originating in conflict areas; "People think it's a Zimbabwe problem but they forget that there is huge international complicity. You can't stop the Zimbabweans until you stop the money men. The people in Zimbabwe are getting next to nothing for these diamonds. The guy with the pick and shovel is literally earning $5. The guy to go and find is the one making $1,000. Go and look at the money and see who else is benefiting. That's why there's no momentum to stop this thing” (Cahill 2009). According to Time, the owner of the mines usually takes around 70% of the value when diamonds are sold to
According to statistics, there are several benefits and disadvantages of mining related to the economic sector. Some of the main benefits of mining are that it leads the economy to expansion and decreases poverty. It also helps in improving and increasing employment by proving more jobs. Moreover, the economic demand for goods and services makes the economy of local communities thrive. However, when it comes to justice, there are many things in which the industry sector falls behind. For example, “Mor...
Hoyt, Alia. "How the African Diamond Trade Works." How Stuff Works. United Nations Department of Public Information, June 2008. Web. 25 Feb. 2011. .
There are many different types of diamonds that vary in value. Koh-I-Noor is one of the most expensive diamonds and the Cullian is another that can be bought at the price of 400 million (3,106.75 carats) and it is one of the largest diamonds found. Diamonds represent wealth, love, and elegance, while the history behind them is brutal, awful, sickening, and bloody. Millions of diamonds came out of areas that have been mining for 50-60 years. The slaves that participate in the mining process are poor; some slaves get paid a share of what they did, others work simply for food, and some work under false hopes of one day catching the big one. They were known as the “Casino economy” because sometimes they found diamonds and other times they went home empty handed (Africa’s Diamond Trade). Blood diamond slavery didn’t get the world’s attention until the late 1990’s in Sierra Leone (Diamond facts.org). Blood diamonds originated in Sierra Leone, Angola, Democra...
Behind the love story of a diamond engagement ring purchased at a jewelry store in a United States mall, might be a story of child labor, violence, and corruption. Approximately, 65% of the world’s diamonds (about $8.5 billion worth) come from Africa (Diamondfacts 1). As pinpointed in the map below, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the main countries where conflict diamonds have originated (Blood 1). Of those diamonds, it was estimated that in 1990, 15% of these diamonds were conflict diamonds (Diamond 1). Conflict diamonds, or blood diamonds, gain their namesake because they originate from areas violently controlled by armed rebel groups. Fierce fighting is part of the process to control diamond-producing areas. The fought-over diamonds are then sold to international diamond dealers, giving the rebels profit to fuel brutal wars in Africa to fund rebel/military weapons. In 2003, the government-run Kimberly Process, named for a city in Africa, was launched to stop the trade of conflict diamonds, but had limited success in preventing villagers from working the mines (Kimberley 1). It is obvious that conflict diamonds cannot be stopped because African villagers are desperate for money, the Kimberley Process is concerned with stopping diamond trade but it does not attempt to curtail abuse in diamond mining, and most diamonds are small and untraceable so they are easy to smuggle.
Many countries that give out these illegal rocks do not give the respect or compassion to their workers.“... major human rights abuses and child labour, or are beset with corruption” (Dunn). To the topic this connects because people that live in the country are being forced to work in the mines searching for these diamonds. The problem for the workers was that they were not suited for the workload they were expected to go off of. “...for the KP definition of the conflict diamonds to include ‘blood diamonds’ --or those
The process of mining involves the removal of non-renewable resources. There are two main types of mining, surface mining and underground mining. This practice has been ongoing since pre-historic times. In my research on mining, the process of taking out valuable materials from within the Earth that cannot be grown or made. Substances that are mined include; limestone, oil, gold and diamonds. The mined materials are used under the pretense to make life better. However, it is also used for consumerism such as diamonds to show a status or a symbol of wealth. The mined materials are driven by human demands and it is an economy within itself due to millions of dollars that it brings.
The mining industry is a billion dollar industry that has been around for years. Miners and business insiders know exactly how lucrative the business is. In calendar your 2016 a net profit of $US20 billion was the aggregated profit for global miners. Mining comes at a cost and the deaths of miners is one of the costs. One of the most disastrous mining accidents took over 1500 lives. Still over the world needs miners. To prevent accidents the mining industry has stricter safety regulations. At the same time the industry has also had technological improvements. The stricter safety regulations and technological improvements in mining are
What is good about mining? Some of the pros of mining are it provides coal, which is one of the best sources of energy here in the United States. It creates well-paying jobs, provides stable energy, is the cheapest form of energy available, and does minimal damage to the environment when compared with some other forms of energy. Half of the energy that is used by the United States every day comes from coal and that coal is only accessible because of miners. Mining allowed industrial growth and development. Without mining we would have remained undeveloped. Almost everything you use in your daily life has some component that come from mining or petroleum in one way or another. The Industrial Revolution could simply not have occurred without mining, firstly coal and iron mining, and later many more commodities. Mining powers the power stations, and provides the chemicals we use to purify water, make paint, build computers and make glass. There are some cons that come to mind when talking about mining also which includes environmental degradation, soil erosion and destru...
The indirect impact of the mining industry has been huge in terms of funding for things like skill development through education and training, there is also provision made for social services in the mines (e.g. health care for the employees of the mines and their families, housing, school etc.) and the contribution the national economy.