Goldfields eco-region. From mining wasteland to productive urban landscape : a new regional park on the traces of the mine dumps of Johannesburg, South Africa

The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 lead to the birth of the Johannesburg Metropolis. After yielding 40% of all gold ever mined, Johannesburg’s mining industry has declined, and all that remains visible from the era is the golden mountain range of waste spanning East to West of the city region. The mine dumps are embedded into the image of the city - icons of the great industry which gave rise to the city. However, these great monuments, containing 6 billion tons of mining waste, pose severe threats to the environment and health of the inhabitants of the city, representing a different image: waste, environmental exploitation and degradation. Traces of gold within the waste have propelled the reprocessing industry which has seen 203 million tons of waste removed, 90 tons of gold recovered, and 222 hectares of land cleared- A profitable process with the value of gold at 1000€ per ounce. And so, the mine dumps are disappearing, and the image of the city is changing. Soon the landscape will be void of these monuments and all that will remain is 40 000 ha of toxic mine dump footprints. The footprints hold opportunities for the re-imagining of the city, the re-structuring of spaces and the reclamation of land, yet it has become clear that there is no holistic vision for the area, as patchworks of industrial and commercial complexes begin to cover the land. The thesis explores the possibility of the future landscapes as drivers of a new economy and their potential to provide solutions to problems caused by the mining landscape. The thesis explores the theme of retaining the traces of the mining industry in a new image for the city. The concluding proposal is the Goldfields Eco-Region created on the footprints of the mine dump sequence. Transformed and driven by green industry, the new landscape provides a strategy for the re-organization of the territory through the creation of a new parkland system of natural resource hubs within the city, promoting sustainable, ecologically sensitive urban development and new social, environmental and cultural goals which shift the image of the city from gold to green.