When we look at South Africa we have a couple of major industries, with mining being one of the largest.  These industries are however all connected in one or more ways.

If we consider many of the smaller towns and even some of the larger cities they would be ghost towns without the mining industry. We see shafts open that create job opportunities that attract people, those people need to be housed, fed and educated. We then see houses, schools, churches, shopping centres and local businesses being erected to facilitate the people, which means that agriculture, construction and businesses are largely dependent on the mining industry.

The mining industry has always been taken for granted, but the reality is South Africa would not have evolved as much as we did if it had not been for the mining industry, and that is why operations operate South Africa.