Underground movements: Zama Zama Mobility, Precarity, and community resilience in South Africa’s Platinum Belt

This article examines the lived experiences of unregulated artisanal miners, locally known as Zama Zamas, who mine within and around abandoned platinum mines in South Africa’s North West province, a region rich in critical minerals. While artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in abandoned gold mines has been the subject of considerable academic inquiry, similar activities in platinum mining areas remain understudied. This study seeks to address this gap by situating ASM within the broader discourse on Africa’s critical minerals agenda and contributing to both academic and policy debates on its strategic role. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the paper investigates how Zama Zamas navigate precarious and often dangerous working conditions, patterns of circular and transnational migration, and exclusion from formal mining economies. It further reveals the social and economic networks and adaptive local strategies that foster resilience and community cohesion amid institutional abandonment and uncertain regulation within the critical mineral extraction sector of derelict mines.