BOOM2DUST

Researching how three prosperous mines in Southern Africa went from collecting ore to collecting dust
3 CITIES IN Southern africa

About the project

There are three industrial mining centres in southern Africa that once stood at the forefront of imperial expansion; Kimberley (South Africa), Kabwe (Zambia), and Tsumeb (Namibia). Once they promised modernity, progress and economic development, but now they are bedevilled by the toxic legacy of economic collapse, societal upheaval and environmental ruin. “Boom to Dust” will research and write the post-humanist multi-species environmental histories of these three industrial mining centres between 1870 and 2020.
Read more
Click on a city for more information

Latest Project Updates

View the latest updates, blogs, publications, news and events

Latest blog posts

B2D Team
Mines, Meat and Maize
Reflections on a Workshop on the Environmental Histories of Mineral Extraction in Southern Africa (25-27 August)
Read more
September 11, 2026
Jan-Bart Gewald
The Stranded Scarab
Scarred and Fading Images of an Environmental Worldview Destroyed by Settler Colonialism and Industrial Mining in the Northern Cape of South Africa
Read more
May 11, 2026
Jules van de Port
Looking Back on Mining Matters
Reflection on the event Mining Matters: : Resource and Mineral Extraction Across Africa
Read more
April 4, 2026

Latest publications

Rosalind C. Morris, Review by Jan-Bart Gewald
Unstable Ground: The Lives, Deaths, and Afterlives of Gold in South Africa, Book Review
September 4, 2026

Latest news

Leiden
Meat and Mining
A conference on the animals whose flesh was used to power the industrial mining revolution that took place in southern Africa following the discovery of copper, diamonds, and gold from the 1850s onwards.
read more
September 1, 2027

Contact us

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form. Please try again.