South Africa’s deep-level precious-metal mines need a new beginning. The five-month platinum strike has highlighted the moral bankruptcy of migrant labour and the financial bankruptcy of current mining methods, which have priced themselves out of the market. Everyone’s help is needed to speed up the phasing in of greater productivity and longer-term sustainability. In the immediate term, new mining methods, including selected blast mining and AngloGold Ashanti’s automated raise-boring technology, should be considered. As there are academic hospitals, academic mines should also be considered to prepare university graduates for higher productivity and the migration of proven technology from other more advanced industries.