Paper short abstract:

We consider the oft-neglected transcorporeality of microbial life and iron ore via ancient stromatolites, layered rock structures co-created through metabolic processes of microorganisms. We draw attention to the microbial-mineral archive as a site for new materialist methodological interventions.

Paper long abstract:

Iron ore, a key ingredient in steel production and the most mined metal on Earth, has long been ontologically relegated to the realm of inanimate objects, belying the lively microbial foundation of iron ore’s formation. This paper takes as its starting point the often neglected transcorporeality of microbial life and iron ore demonstrated through an environmental history of ancient stromatolites. These layered rock structures, co-created through metabolic processes of ancient photosynthetic microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria, represent the earliest forms of life on Earth for which there is fossil evidence, dating back 3.5 billion years. This more-than-human creative collaboration illustrates the limits of the life/non-life binary, drawing attention to the deeply entwined microbial-mineral archive as a key site for research tracing temporalities from the deep geologic to the contemporary and exploring spatialities from the micro to the macro.

We consider the Hammersly Range of Western Australia’s Pilbara Craton as archive. The Hammersly, a mountainous formation dating to the Archaeon Eon four billion years ago, is home to the thickest and most extensive banded iron formations in the world, containing nearly 80% of all identified iron ore in Australia. Yet, simultaneously, large-scale extraction of iron ore by mega-mining companies Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue to meet global construction and engineering demands and the ‘green’ energy transition is threatening this earth archive, destroying mineral-microbial memory strata, and imposing cultural and elemental amnesia. Employing exploratory methods derived from new materialism we aim to recuperate the microbial-mineral archive.