Pilgrim’s Rest in Mpumalanga, the site of one of South Africa’s first gold discoveries and now largely a tourist spot, may be due for revival as an Australian mining company prepares to restart production.

Pilgrim’s Rest had a century-long run as a gold producer, between 1873 and 1972, when the last operational mine was closed.

Pilgrim’s Rest is also a “living museum”, with the hamlet’s buildings largely preserved as they were in the past. The entire town became a national monument in 1986.

Last year, Theta Gold Mines launched its TGME Gold Project to embark on underground mining in the area once again. Key to this is a processing plant using modular mills, manufactured by a South African firm, MechProTech.

The equipment is assembled in the factory and then transported to the site. Theta terms this as its “plug-and-play” model, and allows for rapid, cost-effective set-up; it is supported by a service-level agreement and guarantees of immediate operational readiness. This is a change from the extensive capital outlays and on-site construction that has characterised mining in the past.

The project hopes to be up and running in 2027, processing some 540 000 tonnes of ore from the various operations. It is to have a life of close to 13 years, producing some 1.2 million ounces of gold.

Gold mining output in South Africa has been in sharp decline in recent decades, but with a rising gold price, it has become increasingly attractive. This development highlights another reality in South Africa’s mining industry: accessing its mineral endowments will demand more innovative technology. While South Africa sits on a mineral trove typically valued at around $2.5 trillion, not all of it is readily commercially exploitable – and certainly not in the manner in which the country’s larger deposits were worked in the past.

In the future, the mining industry is likely to need to look increasingly towards smaller, modular plants, to artificial intelligence, and to robotics to do its extraction and processing.

The resuscitation of Pilgrim’s Rest (and other former mining sites like it) faces an additional complication. While large mining firms may not have regarded further extraction as worthwhile, illegal miners, colloquially called zama zamas, have been working the area. This is an illicit economy, dangerous to themselves, and often linked to criminal syndicates. There have been reports from the area of violent intimidation and the bribery of police officers. In addition, their activities have severe environmental consequences, notably polluting water resources in these areas – which in the case of Pilgrim’s Rest are linked to the Kruger National Park.

Activist group Afriforum has taken up this issue, with its environmental coordinator Lambert de Klerk stating: “The continued failure to act decisively sends a dangerous message that organised criminal activities can continue openly and without consequence. Communities and the environment are left to pay the price, while the rule of law is steadily eroded.”