Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal最新文献

The swift global transition to electric vehicles (EV) and batteries in the automotive industry highlights the nature of governments’ efforts towards a green economy, marking a transition from environmental regulations to industrial policies. This shift has led to renewed interest in industrial policies, especially in East Asian developmental states, like South Korea. The EV and battery industries in South Korea have grown rapidly along with the government's efforts to mobilise the entire economy through aggressive green industrial policy, particularly during the Lee Myung-bak administration (2008–2012). Big Korean automobile and electronics manufacturers have participated directly in setting the country's industrial agenda, leading the green industrial policy with their business interests. However, the process of EV and battery policymaking also marginalized auto suppliers in the existing manufacturing sector from agenda setting. Focusing on business’ structural power, this paper explains how big business elites systematically alienate small and medium-sized suppliers from the new growth policy thanks to their strong information monopoly in the hierarchical structure of production in the automobile industry and EV policies in South Korea.

International efforts to tackle climate change have ignited a global surge in demand for the “critical metals” that are used in the production of lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles (EVs). Among them, lithium represents a critical strategic component that is concentrated in only a limited number of extractive zones. In theory, limited availability and strong demand creates favourable conditions for producer states. In practice, many states have struggled to nationalize the production of battery-grade lithium, reflecting the dominant role that multinational corporations play in the sector. This paper explores the strategies that producer states in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia have used to navigate this rapidly changing dynamic, making the case that the recent surge in demand for battery metals has created new opportunities for challenging the oligopoly of multinational capital but the ability of governments to reorient production linkages for enhancing incomes, technical capacity, and economic opportunity in the production of lithium derivatives remains structurally and historically constrained by the institutional legacies of nationalization and social mobilization that vary across the three states. Drawing upon the “political settlements” literature, we contend that national and subnational efforts to exert greater control over the lithium sector can be attributed to the institutional legacy of political contestation and the role of social actors in crafting new power configurations that challenge dominant state-business coalitions.

The Madre de Dios Region of Peru faces significant deforestation largely due to a surge in artisanal-small scale gold mining (ASGM), propelled by rising gold prices. This study evaluates the full scope of ASGM activities on net CO₂ emissions, accounting for both the deforestation that converts forests into mining territories and the emissions directly resulting from mining and transportation activities. By applying kriging to a comprehensive dataset, we determined the carbon content of the region and the annual loss of CO₂ capture due to deforestation. Our analysis also incorporates emissions from the Interoceanic highway, which has contributed to the mining boom. The findings indicate a total net CO₂ emission of 429.9 Gigagrams (Gg) per year, underscoring the critical environmental challenge these activities pose. Our study highlights the need for immediate and effective reclamation efforts, including reforestation with indigenous carbon-rich trees, as a counterbalance to the environmental damage inflicted. These efforts are essential to mitigate the adverse impacts and support the global movement towards net-zero emissions.

Providing sustainable energy solutions for critical mineral investments presents significant challenges, particularly in the context of resource-rich but energy-poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We developed an analytical framework to understand the role of the mineral-energy nexus in delivering developmental co-benefits (MEND). We identified four criteria of developmental co-benefits, namely (1) local electrification, (2) climate mitigation (via renewable energy technologies), (3) enhanced ‘last mile’ power infrastructures, and (4) re-distributive revenues for power sector reforms. By applying this framework to a case study of Chinese lithium mining investment in Zimbabwe, we illustrated the innovative potentials of the investors on the ground, the urgent need to nurture collaborative networks and risk-sharing mechanisms for local electrification, and the lack of regulatory and financial support for the investments on mineral-energy nexus.

Despite the applaudable reflexivity of transition scholars to include considerations of politics (among other things) in their frameworks, we argue that this is not enough, as the mainstream anglophone debates still suffer a fatal flaw: an inability to grasp the form taken by the actually existing hegemonic transition globally. This we contend, is shaped by two recent political economic developments: the concentration on capital in large pools (either under asset management or in Sovereign Wealth Funds) invested on financial markets on the one hand; and the “de-risking” Wall Street Consensus on the other. Because the mainstream anglophone transition debates still shy away from discussing the two (dialectically interwoven) main drivers of anthropogenic climate change – colonialism and capitalism – they remain unable to explain form assumed by the hegemonic green transition and what this means going forward. Scholars from the Latin America, particularly Argentina, in contrast, are confronted by the sharp end of financial markets and green extractivism. Their lived experience of the dark underpinnings of the green transition shaped by finance and extraction has sparked vibrant critical debates over alternatives to the dominant transition narratives that both act as a tonic to the de-politicised mainstream anglophone debates and offer provocations to more critical anglophone scholars.

We develop a political-economic regime framework and apply it to assess the adequacy of governing arrangements to realise overarching social values in three Australian regions transitioning from mining (Victoria's Latrobe Valley; South West Western Australia; and Northern Territory's Gove Peninsula − a majority Indigenous region). The framework situates values, policy arguments, and institutions in a co-evolving system context. Through this lens, mine closure planning and post-mining development emerge as regimes that share overarching values. However, for land rehabilitation, institutions of mine closure risk management prevail over regional development processes. People's values and knowledge illuminate to an encouraging degree the functioning of complex political–economic regimes. Our analysis contributes to theory and practice of regional transition by revealing systemic interactions that need to be addressed for mine closures to contribute to post-mining regional development.

Sand, gravel and crushed stones are the most mined solid materials on Earth and key ingredients in infrastructure development and modern societies. However, the pressure from the growing population for constructing new buildings and expanding living spaces has resulted in an increased demand for these resources, especially in the Global South. For instance, Africa's population is expected to grow from 1 to 2.4 billion in 2050 which would increase the pressure on these limited resources. Present knowledge of aggregate mining is largely limited to the negative effects of the extraction and lacks a nuanced understanding of the benefits to humans and society that the resources also provide. This article examines the variation in present-day aggregate extraction activities in the context of Rwanda, a country in East Africa that has experienced a significant infrastructure development in the last decades. Here we provide an overview of present-day aggregate mining activities across Rwanda to offer more nuances and details on the processes of mining operations to the present discussion. Going forward, the research community must, in a more holistic view, consider the intricate character of these practices and their impacts on economic development and how these resources offer a potential to alleviate poverty and develop countries.

In the past two decades, lithium has gained critical global importance as a transition metal. Under President Evo Morales (2006–2019), the Bolivian government launched a national lithium extraction industry in the Uyuni salt flat. However, efforts to develop industrial-scale extraction of lithium there have been beset by considerable delays. Focusing on the period of Morales’ presidency, this article analyses the perceptions of lithium and its extraction amongst people living in the region around the Uyuni salt flat, specifically in the urban centres. In state media and official communication lithium extraction was presented as a ‘clean’ and ‘future-oriented’ activity, distinct from traditional mining practices. Public perceptions of lithium extraction as being ‘future-oriented’ and distinct from conventional mining practices were also rooted in collective memories of the colonial and neoliberal past and the exploitation of Bolivia's wealth by foreigners. Lithium extraction was therefore also associated with a shift towards a decolonial future that was expected to generate wealth. By the end of the Morales presidency, while people in the region still believed in the clean and future-oriented nature of lithium and its extraction, they no longer believed in Morales’ ability to generate national or local benefits from lithium production.

Observers have celebrated the drive by multinational corporations to develop lithium-ion batteries as a positive step in mitigating climate change. Much of this hype, however, has resulted from corporate leaders propagating green growth narratives that trumpet the capacity of electric cars to initiate an energy transition. Against this backdrop, the paper describes and analyzes significant contradictions of green growth. The South Korean (hereafter, Korea) ‘chaebol’ (enormous, family-owned conglomerates) have deployed green growth myths to build global value chains that transform lithium into batteries that can electrify transportation. I will show how these growth strategies simultaneously produce domestic inequality in Korea and colonial inequities in Argentina, where a large proportion of the world's reserves of lithium lie. Since the 1990s, the chaebol have developed new strategies of accumulation based on a shift toward building global value chains and away from domestic economic growth and expanding employment. The growing electric vehicle industry represents a continuation of these corporate strategies, directing investments to flow abroad in ways that contract domestic employment. These technological innovations require lithium, prompting the chaebols to move decisively to establish control over a significant share of lithium production in Argentina. In seeking to create new pools of value within the much-hyped green transition, these activities have inflicted significant environmental degradation. Moreover, the coloniality of corporate relations with local labor dramatizes how the green transition promised by electric vehicles unevenly distributes the risks and benefits between those parts of the world producing green energy and the industrialized countries consuming it.

The global energy transition has significantly increased the demand for critical and strategic minerals, many of which are sourced from small-scale mining (SSM). This research investigates the role of SSM in fostering mineral sovereignty and security, focusing on its contributions to economic development, social justice, and environmental conservation. Through an analysis of academic literature, government documents, and reports of international organizations, this study provides a comprehensive overview of SSM's impact and challenges. The findings reveal that while SSM is vital for the economies of developing countries, it faces obstacles related to formalization, access to sustainable technologies, and integration into global value chains. Additionally, the research identifies resource-rich areas in Brazil with low mining rights concessions, indicating potential policy development opportunities centered on SSM. Ultimately, this study emphasizes the need for innovative public policies and international cooperation to ensure the responsible and equitable exploitation of critical mineral resources, thus reinforcing SSM's essential role in a sustainable future.