Juxtaposing literatures on urbanisation and mining at a time when small-scale artisanal as well as large-scale mining operations are transforming many African economies, this book focuses on the interplay of Sub-Saharan Africa mining and urbanisation in the context of global shifts in capital and labour flows. Classically, urbanisation has been identified with industrial expansion, but mining is a distinct subset of industrial activity, involving artisanal and large-scale mining.

Case studies of a wide variety of countries with long historical experience of large-scale mining (South Africa, Ghana, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Botswana), as opposed to more recent experiences of artisanal mining (Mozambique, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone), reveal that the mining surge in some countries and the slow-down in others where mining was formerly dominant encompasses a wide range of urban outcomes. In view of the cyclical boom-and-bust nature of mining activity and the sector’s dependence upon finite resources and exposure to world market fluctuations, this book probes settlement patterns and welfare dimensions of urban change associated with African mining amidst an unprecedented spiral in global mineral prices.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.