Gold Miner, Mozambique

by: Blaine Skrainka

Mozambique’s economic growth has been one of the strongest among African nations in the last decade, thanks in large part to the export of metals including aluminum and gold. But the GDP growth is not without human costs. Inhalation of silica dust from gold-bearing rocks, for example, can cause diseases like silicosis, which in turn makes miners more susceptible to tuberculosis. In neighboring South Africa, an enormous class action law suit, the biggest in the country’s history, has been brought against gold mining firms. Read more here.

Photograph by Robin Hammond, Panos