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Title
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The gold commodity frontier : a fresh perspective on change and diversity in the global gold mining economy
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Author
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Abstract
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| In recent decades, alongside the emergence of a truly globalized mining industry, we have seen a strong expansion of predominantly informal artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). While both trends are often studied in isolation, we argue that they can be seen as products of the same structural process: the widening and deepening of the gold commodity frontier. More precisely, we argue that gold mining, in an attempt to overcome several socio-ecological and socio-political limitations, has expanded outside its historical core into a range of new mining destinations (widening), and has come to rely on an intensification of production through socio-technical innovations (deepening). These processes of widening and deepening have not only led to an expansion of industrial mining, but are also, increasingly, contributing to a (geographically unequal) expansion of ASGM. In addition to targeting deposits that are unattractive for industrial mining, ASGM is better equipped to deal with socio-political uncertainty, and drives down the cost of production through a reliance on flexible informal labour. Using case study evidence from the Philippines and the DRC, we then illustrate how the processes of widening and deepening intersect with (sub-)national processes of political-economic transformation, producing different types of gold mining constellations. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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The Extractive Industries and Society. - -
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Publication
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Oxford
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Elsevier sci ltd
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2019
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ISSN
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2214-790X
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DOI
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10.1016/J.EXIS.2018.10.014
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Volume/pages
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6
:2
(2019)
, p. 413-423
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ISI
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000466795300016
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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Full text (open access)
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Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
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