Cheryl Williams might easily be mistaken for a sprightly but retiring grandmother focused on simply enjoying this phase of her life though once you hear her story you quickly understand that nothing could be further from the truth. The last thing you would think, however, is that for almost thirty years Cheryl has been making a living in the gold-mining sector though not, at the inception, in gold-mining itself.
Once she had been enticed by her older sister, Joan, to leave a job as a Security Guard at Kwakwani in the bauxite industry and join her in a thriving bakery business at Puruni she took a decision that that was to be a decisive turn in her own life. In 1991, Joan moved directly into gold-mining, acquiring her first dredge, affording Cheryl her initial first-hand experience of the sector.
It was to be a further three years before Cheryl made her own ‘plunge’ into the sector. She talks about her transition animatedly, not once omitting the role that her sister played in grounding her in the ways of the industry. Then she diverts, deliberately, to address what she says are the misconceptions associated with being in the gold-mining sector. Whereas, from the outside, there are perceptions of a ‘bed of roses’ Cheryl says that mining is usually “hard work, continuous challenges” and all of that for what, all too frequently, is no more than a modest living.
