SPECPOL - World Model United Nations

BHP Billiton is the world’s largest mining company by market cap
Balancing the Government and the Private Sector:
South Africa
For hundreds of years, South Africa has been
inextricably linked with mining. A land of abundant
mineral resources, the region has produced gold for
hundreds of years, but it was not until the arrival of
the British and the grip of colonialism that the mining
industry truly developed. White foreigners became
dominant in every sector, in particular mining, reaping
large profits and creating a reputation for South
Africa as a literal goldmine waiting to be exploited.
The colonization of South Africa began in 1652
when the Dutch began a colony at present-day Cape
town, hoping to secure an outpost along a nautical
spice trade route to the Far East. 92 the settlement
grew, bolstered by Europeans fleeing religious
persecution and imported slaves. After several
skirmishes in the preceding years, the British captured
the settlement in 1806 and, a little over a decade later,
began promoting the emigration of British people
to the colony, pushing a group of people known
as the Boers northward into unexplored territory.
though the British continued to annex their claimed
territory, the Boers eventually founded the Orange
Free State in 1854, in north-central South Africa and
the Transvaal Republic further north in 1852. 93 in
1866, diamonds were discovered in the Orange Free
State, and later, in 1885, an enormous gold deposit
was found in the Transvaal Republic. The young
states were hardly capable of fully exploiting these
mineral opportunities and thus were forced to allow
many foreigners to enter who could. 94 Many of these
foreigners were British, who began to outnumber the
Boers and pose a threat to their views on religion and
slavery. Tensions exploded in 1877, when the British
attempted to annex Transvaal, leading to the First
Boer War, which prevented annexation but did not
deter the British.
After the discovery of gold, Transvaal became a
very wealthy state, and it soon became the largest
gold producer in the world. expansionist eyes in
British South Africa saw Transvaal as a very valuable
potential addition to the empire, and so expansionists
and imperialists hoping to gain access to the mines
encouraged the annexation of the state. 95 tensions,
already on edge due to the previous war, rose once
again, and in 1899, the Second Boer War broke out.
Britain quickly gained the upper hand, but three years
of guerilla warfare took place before it was declared
the official victor and the two republics were formally
annexed, completing the unification of South Africa.
the war had many implications for the country
as a whole, especially for the mining industry. With
the unification of South Africa complete, British
prospectors came in droves to the Witwatersrand,
the region yielding the largest gold discoveries. 96
Even before the war, chartered companies such as
the British South Africa Company began securing
footholds here and in the diamond mines in Kimberly,
in the former Orange Free State. The monopolies
established during this time period, particularly
Cecil Rhodes’ consolidation of the diamond mining
companies, are notable in that they were largely
encouraged by the government, which essentially
handed control of the region over to the powerful
businessmen such as Rhodes who invested in the
region. 97 Though slavery was abolished in 1833, the
now impoverished Boers and the natives went to
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