Namibia, a mining frontier for decades, continues to struggle with mining companies which subject workers to dangerous working conditions. Among the alleged culprits are Australian multinationals. Well-established Australian companies face allegations of treating Namibian workers differently by subjecting workers to health risks which would be deemed unacceptable back home.

Discovery Metals built Boseto Mine at a cost of $175 million and Cupric Canyon bought it for $35 million. Workers put in their sweat and tears and were driven out in buses.

Fatal Extraction is an international collaboration combining corporate data and extensive field reporting to reveal deaths, injuries and community conflicts linked to Australian mining companies across Africa. Australia has more mining companies in Africa than other mining giants such as Canada and China.

Australian companies have built a powerful reputation for using start-up firms to acquire Namibian mining licenses for a song only to sell these for millions or billions of dollars a few years later.

For years, residents of Botlhatlogo, Sehithwa and Toteng, were among the poorest in Botswana; in 2014 the government-run Statistics Botswana found that 46.2% of the district’s residents lived in abject poverty. But the 2010 advent of the first ever copper mine in their midst raised hopes that perhaps things would turn out for the better. But that hope has all but fizzled out.