After 75 years of uncontrolled gold mining several research projects had been undertaken at higher education institutions to determine and record the consequences. In late 2012 the Northwest-University received funding from the National Research Foundation to explore the ecohealth and wellbeing status of mining communities. The space of focus was the town of Bekkersdal in western Gauteng and part of the Westonaria municipality situated in the broader Far West Rand Districts Municipal region. The mineral wealth in the area has been depleted and operations are winding down, leaving large-scale environmental degradation, a rising unemployment and serious questions about the health and wellbeing of local residents who regularly also complain about service delivery issues, that worsens their wellbeing status. With hopes to address some of these questions historian, Prof Elize van Eeden from the School of Basic Sciences on the Vaal Triangle Campus, and a team of a 22 academics, representing 11 different disciplines, the project took off in 2013.
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