In August 2020, out of the blue, the owners of the 28,000-hectare Selati Game Reserve received word that a company called Tiara Mining had plans to excavate a series of open-cast pits on their land. The mining application was at an advanced stage, it seemed, which was strange — no one from Tiara Mining had ever set foot on the conservancy. And so began a battle that would unearth a litany of contradictions.