Inside a South African gold mine
16 August 2013 Last updated at 01:45 BST
Friday marks a year since 34 miners were shot dead by police in the South African town of Marikana in a dispute over wages.
Mine unions say there has been little improvement since then.
South Africa's economy has long been driven by mining but production has dropped over the decades.
Mark Lowen was given rare access into a gold mine to see what conditions are like and to follow the mining process.