"With $2.5 trillion in mineral reserves, South Africa has the largest mining sector in the world," but "[t]he work can be devastatingly toxic for the body," with "inhumane and untenable" working conditions, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. "South Africa's 500,000 mine workers have the highest recorded rate of [tuberculosis (TB)] among any demographic in the world," he states, noting that cramped working and living conditions put them at an increased risk of the disease. Overall, "mine-associated TB gives rise to 760,000 new cases annually in Africa," and "costs South Africa alone $886 million each year in health care costs and in impoverishment when family providers are too sick to work, or die," according to a study conducted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tutu writes. Therefore, the 15 SADC nations this summer pledged to take "concrete steps" to fight the disease, he notes.