Property rights and theft wrongs? A preliminary analysis of stealing in the extractive industries

Abstract

Mineral stealing is anecdotally seen in various studies within the extractive industries, and systematic analyses are lacking. This study is a preliminary analysis of the evidence and explanations for such stealing. It first categorizes different types of stealing, namely, employee theft, stealing by local residents, stealing at the interface of industrial and artisanal and small mines, and theft across the supply chain. Stealing is not necessarily a crime or deviant behaviour; instead, it occurs due to contestation over ownership and benefit-sharing in the resource sector. For local people, stealing is an everyday means for the weak to subsist and challenge the legitimacy of regulatory agencies in the struggle for recognition. Different perceptions blur the lines between the legality and illegality of stealing. Finally, this paper calls for more systematic and multidisciplinary research on mineral stealing.