South Africa’s Deadly Gold Rush

Investigative journalist Seyi Rhodes from Unreported World follows the young men coming to South Africa to mine gold illegally. In turn, they risk everything – even their own lives – in the abandoned gold mines of Durban Deep.

The gold mine is an hour outside Johannesburg and was closed down 12 years ago, after commercial mining companies moved on. Now illegal miners descend half a kilometre underground, through make-shift tunnels, and use explosives to blow apart the rock in search of gold.

There are dangers both inside and outside the mines, local gangs control the area, and rapes and murders are now commonplace.