Paper short abstract:

Based on ethnographic research in the Soma Coal Basin, this paper examines how the current discourses and policies of ‘climate change mitigation’ unleash intensified forms of labor-based violence and environmental disasters; and enable new frontiers of extractive colonialism such as deep-sea mining.

Paper long abstract:

Blatantly doubling down on fossil fuel production, “governments plan to produce around 110% more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C” according to the Production Gap Report 2023. This paper addresses two processes that are obscured within “the widening gulf between governments' rhetoric and their actions,” as named by Angela Picciariello. First, I examine how the so-called green and sustainable projects and the relative decline of coal production in Europe unleash intensified forms of (spectacular and slow) labor-based violence and disasters in the Global South, the Indigenous energy geographies of the North, and the geopolitically liminal, non-Western regions such as Mexico and Turkey. To do this, based on 18-month-long ethnographic fieldwork, I focus on the Soma mine disaster of May 13, 2014, which took the lives of 301 coal miners in Turkey. I argue that a renewed combination of disciplining and neglecting the bodies and body parts of working class and other dispossessed communities—in Foucauldian terms, a renewed merging of an anatomo-politics of the human body and a biopolitics of population—is the ordinary, yet obfuscated truth of contemporary fossil capitalism. Second, and more briefly, I lay out my preliminary thoughts on the material politics of ‘sustainable energy sources’ and ‘energy security’ within capitalism by looking at the (exploratory) deep-sea mining projects. I discuss how hegemonic discourses of ‘climate change mitigation’ and the current forms of international climate policy enable new futurities of extractive colonialism such as deep-sea mining.

Paper short abstract:

To portray deep sea mining as more sustainable than onshore, corporations emphasize the absence of the mining-affected community. Here I scrutinizes the "absent presence" of communities, showing how DSM's construction of social license to operate perpetuates the logic of social dispossession.

Paper long abstract:

With the slogan “A Battery in a Rock,” deep-sea mining (DSM) poised to revolutionize mineral extraction crucial for transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Represented as an environmentally and socially responsible alternative to conventional onshore mining, DSM exploits the perceived “placelessness” and remoteness of the deep ocean to sidestep social obligations (Childs, 2019). The efforts to depict DSM as more sustainable than onshore mining often emphasize the physical absence of the so-called “mining-affected community”. It is imperative to critically examine and scrutinize this loss of local community presence in terms of their intimate connection to mined territories, resistance, and the subsequent vigilant monitoring of resource extraction operations. In this “discombobulated actor-network” sector (Filer et al., 2021), local communities become missing stakeholders (with states assuming more power), losing the right to claim royalties or other forms of land ownership. Moreover, communities, such as those in island states of Oceania, will be the first impacted by DSM operations in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. In this paper, I aim to problematize the “absent presence” of mining-affected communities (Bainton, Skrzypek, 2021) to reflect on how the construction of the “social license to operate” and “zero impact” in DSM perpetuates the logic of social dispossession. Drawing on ethnographic material collected in New Caledonia concerning a land-based mining project and on the analysis of the current “rush for Oceania”, this paper show the vital importance of the community as stakeholder to challenge and resist the colonial and extractivist logics.

Paper short abstract:

How does waste emerge as the core element of environmental conflicts? How do mining wastescapes (re)emerge as resources framed under the label of “sustainable” and “green” mining? I argue that extraction is simultaneously an act of injection, resulting in disproportionate amounts of toxic waste.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the material legacies of the late 19th century settler-colonial gold rushes in the contemporary gold rush to challenge the prevalent notions of “discovery” and “extraction.” The world has witnessed an unprecedented global proliferation of mining activities over the past four decades. Gold mining constitutes the bulk of this extractive moment, attracting nearly half of all the new mining investments. More gold has been produced since 1980 than all the gold produced up to that point. Originally confined to four settler-colonial countries in the late 19th century, the gold mining industry has now expanded globally, marking what could be termed the 'third gold rush' and giving rise to new wastescapes. Today, these wastescapes are transformed into novel resources with the help of microorganisms. By tracking the material conditions of possibility for the third gold rush, this paper explores: 1) How do waste and risk emerge as the defining elements of socio-environmental conflicts in the current mineral age? 2) How do the mining wastescapes (re)emerge as resources framed under the labels of “sustainable” and “green” mining? I argue that the assembled relations between humans, minerals, microorganisms, materials, formulas, and discourses lead to a crucial aspect of mining: the act of extraction is simultaneously an act of injection, resulting in disproportionate amounts of toxic waste. To theorize the scaling of extractivism at the global level, the paper proposes a shift in analytical focus from resource extraction to the production and reuse of waste as a vector of slow violence.

Paper short abstract:

As the green transition requires mineral resources, historic tailings reprocessing and the reopening of legacy mines constitute a new form of ‘grey extractivism.’ Through case studies in Alaska and Missouri, we address the reproduction of socio-economic pressures within the transition.

Paper long abstract:

Under the Biden administration’s push to secure supplies of green minerals, the US is developing new mines and reprocessing existing tailings. This paper proposes to address ‘re-mining’ not only as a form of cleaner mineral production but also a continuation of extractivist narratives within territories already marked by processes of pollution, land degradation, and socio-economic discord. The revalorization from apparent waste materials to resources unsettles established dynamics and provokes reactions that can be unpredictable (Bleicher et al 2019). We explore the acceptance and/or rejection of the reprocessing of historic tailings and reopening of legacy mines that have shaped communities. Tailings are previously processed anthropogenic residues from mined ore. Legacy mines are now being used for another purpose, or are orphaned, abandoned, or derelict and in need of remedial work (Worrall et al. 2009).

This research builds upon ethnographies in two case studies – the Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska and the Missouri Cobalt operation in Missouri. Red Dog is located on Inuit land and leased to the operator by an Alaska Native corporation. The mine now aims at reprocessing gallium and germanium from its tailings. Missouri Cobalt intends to open a cobalt producing mine from a historic lead operation. Both operations present significant challenges, both technical and social. As the green transition’s thirst for minerals continues to fuel new exploration, these processes appear as new forms of ‘grey extractivism’ that could be poised for rapid growth across the countless legacy and abandoned mine sites worldwide.

Paper short abstract:

Through the case of cobalt mining in the DRC this paper unpacks how responsible sourcing discourses contribute to (de)legitimizing mining activities, with a risk of reinforcing historical power inequalities and extractive patterns rather than achieving the change they claim to be pushing for.

Paper long abstract:

Following a rapid increase of demand for the mineral cobalt, as a key element of ‘green’ end-products such as electric vehicles, awareness has increased on the often dire working conditions of artisanal cobalt miners in the DRC. In the face of these market and sustainability pressures coming together, a diversity of actors has mobilized a, as I conceptualize it, responsible cobalt assemblage. Within this assemblage ‘responsible cobalt’, rendered technical through a range of multi-stakeholder initiatives pushing for ASM formalization, is being presented as the key to (1) combatting the climate crisis, (2) boosting the Congolese economy, and (3) fostering development.

Contributing to a broader literature on the mining-sustainability nexus, this paper focusses on the multi-dimensional concept of legitimacy, and specifically how responsible sourcing (RS) discourses contribute to (de)legitimizing ASM formalization efforts. Using RS discourses justifies developments such as the recent inauguration of the Musompo Trading Center by President Tshisekedi as well as industry-led initiatives including the Fair Cobalt Alliance and RCS Better Mining. Yet while enabling state and industry actors to continue and increase their cobalt production, benefits at the level of artisanal miners are lagging behind. Adding to studies already pointing to a gap between ‘responsible’ rhetoric and on-the-ground realities, both in cobalt mining as in other so-called ‘transition’ and ‘conflict mineral’ supply chains, this paper flags legitimacy issues in responsible cobalt initiatives. In their current form, responsible cobalt initiatives risk reinforcing historical power inequalities and extractive patterns rather than achieving the change they claim to be pushing for.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses Australia’s emerging hydrogen sector and its hub development model to reveal the co-dependence between old resource frontiers (fossil fuels, heavy industry) and new carbon frontiers (clean energy technologies and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Paper long abstract:

Given the urgency to both decarbonize and secure a dominant role in the global competition to become a ‘green’ industrial powerhouse, the Australian government is heavily invested in supporting hydrogen initiatives to quickly scale. The preferred model for hydrogen development is the establishment of so-called, “hydrogen hubs” (sometimes referred to as renewable energy industrial precincts or net-zero industrial clusters) which will co-locate hydrogen supply and demand with existing energy and export infrastructure to create a “springboard to scale”, lowering transportation costs and theoretically generating greater certainty for potential suppliers that there will be demand and assuring potential users that there will be a reliable supply of hydrogen (Commonwealth of Australia 2019, 34). However, the hub model assumes a circular logic, where a speculative hydrogen supply legitimates the expansion of an existing or new heavy industry, by promising it will eventually offset or replace the carbon emissions of that industry even if not yet assured. This paper draws on a content analysis of plans, policy, and consultancy documents on Australia’s emerging hydrogen sector to reveal a co-dependence between old resource frontiers (fossil fuels, heavy industry) and new carbon frontiers (clean energy technologies and carbon capture and storage (CCS)). While drawing on pasts and appealing to futures, this present convergence is shaping the infrastructural form of the latest stage of decarbonization, encouraging the development of interconnected assemblages that link fossil fuel, heavy industry, carbon-capture, offsetting, and clean energy (Neale et al 2023).

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the political economy of balsa extractivism in the Ecuadorean Amazonia for the benefit of windmill construction enterprises in China and Europe in the process of “green” energy transition.

Paper long abstract:

Balsa (ochroma pyramidale), is a type of timber that is mostly produced in Ecuadorian Amazonia. In fact, Ecuador is the world’s largest balsa producer and it has been so for decades. Apparently the

demand for balsa has skyrocketed over the past few years, and illegal balsa trade is -indirectly -responsible for some of the Amazon’s illegal deforestation. The – unlikely – reason is green energy: balsa is the core material used in the construction of wind turbin-blades, and since wind-farms have multiplied impressively all over the globe in the quest for green energy solutions, so has the demand for balsa, which is -ironically – bringing about deforestation in the Amazonia. Of course, extractivism is not a new phenomenon in the Ecuadorian Amazonia. Today it is the turn of balsa to become the “brown gold” of Amazonia’s eternal El Dorado in order to produce the West’s green energy. At the same time, local communities all over the globe also increasingly oppose the installation of wind-farms, the “final product” of the global balsa supply chain. Drawing from already existing literature on the windmills’ installation, I intend to move ‘backwards’ to see the process of extraction, combine findings with previous research on windfarms and thus overall provide a more thorough and complete understanding of the issue, contributing to the literature on green energy, its contradictions, and its lived experience; adding to the genealogy of extractivism, in the Amazonia

exploring how this case study adds/ challenges/ contradicts/ furthers what we already know.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores contested lithium futures in traditional, formerly abandoned, mining territories in the German-Czech border region. It focuses on the politics of time in finding ‘acceptable’ forms of lithium extraction among local residents, scientists, company employees and public authorities.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years apparent critical supply crises and geopolitical pressures around the globe have injected new demands for the extraction, processing and recycling of mineral resources. Particularly in countries of the Global North, the temporal pressure to combat climate change and to ensure energy security became increasingly entangled with a “securization rhetoric around critical minerals” (Owen et al. 2022, 4). In the European context this involves, for example, quests for developing new re-mining technologies, and for reviving old mining frontiers or formerly closed mine sites. The paper explores how particular tropes of ‘mining for climate’ in general and ‘mining for lithium’ in particular build upon the infrastructures and residues of prior extractive operations in the German-Czech border region. Based on ethnographic research within a transdisciplinary re-mining project, we seek to shed light on the material, political, economic, and social ‘grey lines’ connecting and disrupting the fields of technology development, exploration, extraction, and remediation. More specifically we are interested in local crystallizations and contestations around recently introduced European and German mining policies aimed at ‘speeding up’ or ‘streamlining’ permitting processes. We argue that in the targeted or future areas of mineral extraction, scientific, corporate or state-led attempts of timing the public debate (fails to) set(s) the ground for socially ‘acceptable’ forms of research extraction. A central pillar in this regard is their potential in undermining alternative forms of future-making for which local community members strive.