epidemic in Africa (Coffee, Lurie, Garnett, 2007; Lurie et al., 2003; Brewer et al., 1998). Oster (2011) shows how exports affect the incidence of HIV in Africa and she interprets these results as evidence that increased exports increase the movement of people, which increases sexual contacts. Similarly, Djemai (2009) observes that living in close proximity to a major road increases the individual risk of infection, suggesting that trade along roads and displacement of people contribute to HIV propagation. More similar to our work, some epidemiological studies assess the prevalence of occupational illnesses among the workforce employed in South African mines, such as tuberculosis, silicosis, HIV/AIDS and lung disease (Leger 1992; Steen et al. 1997; Corbett et al. 2000). Ress et al. (2009) discuss the role of oscillating migration from the gold mines of South Africa and the neighboring countries in fuelling silicosis, tuberculosis and HIV infection. While they provide a detailed review of the literature, they do not test empirically the relationship between migration toward the mines and HIV infection.

This paper makes several contributions. First, it complements the literature that tries to understand the reasons for the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though the mining industry represents a large fraction of the economy in many African countries, little is known about the association between mining activities and HIV prevalence. This paper is among the first to explicitly test this relationship. Second, we highlight a group at high risk for HIV infection overlooked in the previous literature, namely the wives/partners of the migrant miners. From a policy perspective, this is important because it sheds light on a new potential focus for HIV prevention programs. Third, although much of the paper is devoted to establishing a link between mining activities and HIV infection, we also contribute to a better understanding of the socioeconomic profile of HIV/AIDS and related sexual behaviors. In this respect, we confirm the crucial role of education in preventing HIV infections and promoting safer sexual habits.

The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we provide a background of the migrant miners' phenomenon towards South Africa. The data and the empirical methodology are discussed in section 3. Section 4 describes the main results and in section 5 we report some robustness checks. Finally, section 6 concludes.

# **2. Background**

## **2.1 Migrant miners in South Africa**

Mining is South Africa’s largest economic sector and has been the main driving force behind the history and development of the country. Large scale and profitable mining activity started with the discovery of diamonds in the Orange River in 1867 and it rapidly grew with the discovery of other minerals such as gold **,** platinum, coal, chromium, iron, vanadium and uranium. During the 20<sup>th</sup> century, South Africa was the world’s top producer of gold, gem diamonds, ferrochromium and platinum, representing approximately 88% of the world reserve base of platinum-group metals. South Africa was self-sufficient in the vast majority of its mineral needs, the bulk of which were produced in the northern half of the country (Encyclopedia of the Nations, 2011).

The size and the labor-intensity of the mining industry created job opportunities for the men of southern Africa, who have been, throughout the century, the major source of employees for the mining sector in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Ninety percent of the 700,000 workers employed in the South African mines in 1980 were non-whites (Lucas, 1985). Due to their close 4