Mining is one of South Africa’s largest employment sectors and, according to Fin24, a report by StatsSA shows the number of people working in the gold-mining industry drop from 198 465 to 131 591 in the 10 years between 2003 and 2013.

So what’s the big deal?

Well, considering we’ve only got about 38 years of gold left, we’d better come up with a plan to create more employment opportunities pretty f*cking quick, as we’re already sitting with millions of unemployed.

In our other major mining sectors things don’t lok all that bad though, with about 239 years worth or platinum and 118 years worth of coal left… but if we’re going to dig ourselves out of this foolish dependence on natural resources we’ll have to create sustainable employment through sustainable economic drivers.