Mining Legacies and Environmental Injustice: Systematic Mining-Led LULC Change in the Witwatersrand Mining Belt, Gauteng, South Africa (1990–2020)

Mining activities significantly shape landscapes and often pose sustainability and environmental justice challenges for surrounding communities. This paper examines land use and land cover (LULC) transitions and their sustainable development implications along the Witwatersrand mining belt in Gauteng, South Africa (1990–2020). Leveraging geospatial analysis, chi-square statistical testing, and spatial clustering, the findings highlight a critical tension between mining and sustainability efforts. While 54.53 km² of mining areas successfully transitioned to natural vegetation, landscape-scale degradation persisted, natural and planted vegetation declined, and barren land increased, with informal settlements also increasing and concentrating in mining-adjacent areas. Statistical significance tests (χ² = 11,319,251.69, p < 0.001; Cramér’s V = 0.60) indicate that 97.9% of transitions are systematic rather than random, and that they concentrate in previously disadvantaged communities. Mining land was also converted to residential areas despite regulatory protections and buffer zones, indicating a policy and implementation gap. This study highlights the crucial role of LULC assessments in post-mining landscape management, concluding that practical mining sustainability requires an integrated approach of stronger regulation, affordable housing, participatory rehabilitation planning, and accountability mechanisms grounded in quantitative evidence of distributive and environmental justice.