Hang on to your nuggets TV lovers... TVSA can exclusively bring you the scoop on e.tv's new telenovela Gold Diggers.
It premieres on the channel on Monday, 10 August - when Ashes to Ashes ends - and explores the underground world of illegal mining: the danger, the darkness and the internal battles that face those who plunge themselves into the search for precious metal.
The series centres round an ageing miner who goes by the name of Zama Zama. He has a fatal illness and needs to provide for his family, so he enters the murky world of gold digging to provide for them as his illness grows.
The lead cast will only be revealed closer the premiere but we've managed to get our clutches on three of the cast attached to the project: Elliot Makhubo, Thandy Matlaila and Bonginkosi Twala.
Elliot Makhubo (Character: Bab'Buthelezi)
Bab'Buthelezi is the mine's traditional healer who can forsee the future. We caught up with Elliot in between filming to get his view on his character and he described him as "someone who can help other characters so they can sustain."
He's good and he's not a villain but he does do questionable things. This from Elliot about him: "He sometimes uses some crooked muti. There's a scene where I give a lady muti for an abortion - it didn't flow well for me, it was very hectic for me - not good because I can't kill a child, you know what I mean."
You may remember that Elliot played a Sangoma on City Ses'la too - it's the third time he's played a traditional healer and the first time he's played one on a drama instead of a comedy.
What's the difference between playing a Sangoma for comedy versus drama? According to Elliot he really needed to focus: "When I look at the bones I see what I'm talking about so that makes me deeper and more real."
Thandy Matlaila (Character: Happiness)
Thandy - of Tshisa fame - plays Happiness, a prostitute who offers "services" to the miners, under the eye of a pimp. She appears in approximately two episodes a week when the series starts and her role increases as the series unfolds.
This from Thandy about the set-up: "The prostitutes service some of the miners, some of the mine owners and everybody who's in and around and they find it a lucrative business because most people who work on a mine don't go there with their wives - because it's a work environment - so they capitalise on it."
Happiness doesn't have such a happy background. She found herself on the mines after an ex-boyfriend broke her heart, leaving her feeling uncherished. She's decided that if she's going to give it up for a man, he may as well pay for it.
Bonginkosi Twala (Character: Mandla)
Gazlam, My Perfect Family, Rockville and now Gold Diggers.
Bonginkosi Twala plays Mandla, a mine union rep who's too nosey for his own good. According to Bonginkosi, "Mandla's into other people's business and he speaks without thinking. He's problematic in a way - he's a miner. He's a trouble-maker."
He's such a trouble-maker that he loses part of himself in the series.
Bonginkosi: "There's a scene where he's so nosey they end up cutting his ear off!"