Transnational Mining Research Articles

“CORPORATE SECURITY BEGINS IN THE COMMUNITY”: Mining, the Corporate Social Responsibility Industry, and Environmental Advocacy in Indonesia

In 2002, male village leaders and youth living near a transnational mining corporation's operation in rural Indonesia attacked a group of visiting environmental activists. I analyze the moral commitments of the corporate managers who provoked the attack and the village elites who organized and executed it, turning to the context of the burgeoning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) industry to grasp the broader dimensions of the beliefs and practices through which managers and elites legitimized their actions. This essay shows that the CSR industry is coevolving alongside environmental advocacy campaigns and grassroots corporate security models.

Regulation & Legitimacy in the Mining Industry in Africa: Where does Canada Stand?

There are more than 1,000 mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges, more than any other country and, as such, represent the most important source of investment in mining in Africa. This article provides a preliminary evaluation of the experience and report of the Canadian National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It does so in the context of the surge of Canadian investment in mining in Africa and of increasing public awareness of the negative impacts of the activities of Canadian mining enterprises. It examines the issues of resource governance and the ‘securitisation’ of mining activities. The recommendations favouring adoption of a Canadian set of CSR Standards for Canadian extractive‐sector companies operating abroad is contextualised in the global expansion of transnational mining investment that since the 1990s led to increasing conflicts with local communities.

Transnational Law and Local Struggles: Mining Communities and the World Bank. By David Szablowski. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing, 2007. Pp. 352. $70.00 cloth; $40.00 paper.

Transnational Law and Local Struggles: Mining Communities and the World Bank. By David Szablowski. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing, 2007. Pp. 352. $70.00 cloth; $40.00 paper. Theoretically and empirically, this book offers a provocative and rich discussion on the intersection between transnational law and local struggles that emerge in a transnational mining project in the global south. Empirically, by presenting a highly contextual, specific analysis (p. 289), Szablowski identifies the benefits and dangers of such intersections by carefully tracing the interaction of the actors involved (i.e., the transnational mining company, the local population, and the World Bank). Szablowski examines the dynamics of legitimation, its connection to regulation, and how it is pursued both inside and outside state structures. The book is divided into two parts. The first examines the development of transnational legal regimes and their relationship to other forms of law, while the second part delves into the practical concerns of transnational legal ordering in regulating local environments. The first part comprises four chapters. The first addresses how law is internalized into informal legal process and legitimated. The proliferation of transnational law creates particular types of political identities and political engagement. In the second chapter, Szablowski shows how the Peruvian state takes either a prominent or distant role in mediating corporate/community claims. In either case, he exposes the lack of participation by the local population in the process. Further, when the state is distant, the mining company takes a great deal of the responsibility for mediation, developing a local space of informal legal ordering to deal with local interests. Therefore, the mining company controls and regulates, while community actors find their rights circumscribed with limited possibilities for bargaining. The third chapter focuses on transnational legal regimes aimed at mining and community conflicts. As globalization opens up possibilities for transnational companies, it also enables the formation of transnational advocacy networks to censor their activities. On the one hand, companies are working with transnational organizations to develop legal standards for global industries called certification institutions. Transnational firms adopt certification institutions to diffuse critics, and to provide legitimacy to the industry. Most certification institutions tend to rely on the firm's discretion to interpret and implement standards, avoiding the language of rights and obligations. World Bank agencies have become certification institutions, enforcing mandatory safeguard policies for the projects they finance. Important to note, these policies provide procedural definitions of social responsibility. On the other hand, critics challenge certification institutions, arguing that self-regulation is comparable to no regulation (with the implicit intention to regulate the industry). Chapter four looks at the World Bank safeguard policy's structure and characteristics to assess its regulatory credibility. …

Mining Migrants: Transnational Mining and Migration Patterns in the Peruvian Andes*

This article evaluates the linkages between transnational mining corporations and local migration dynamics in Peru. Changes in migration patterns in the Cajamarca region of Peru over the past decade are examined via a case study of the gold mining operations of Newmont Mining Corporation. The study considers household migration behavior in communities surrounding the mine as well as transformations in regional, national, and international migration patterns. Also examined are the temporal nature of these changing patterns across short, medium, and long-term time periods. *This research was conducted with the support of a National Science Foundation Regional Sciences DDRI (BCS-0002347) and the United States Fulbright Commission. All opinions, data, omissions, and errors are the sole responsibility of the author.

Minerals-based sustainable development — One viable alternative

Anti-mining sentiments are rife in Europe and North America. Environmental accidents associated with mining activities in numerous countries and resource wars in Africa have triggered harsh criticism, not only of mining but also of the metal industries in general. The purpose of this article is to discuss mining industry practices and responsibilities and to consider the options available for using mineral wealth as a lever for economic, social and cultural development. Our conclusions are that not only are minerals indispensable to such development, but possibly the only viable alternative for a better global standard of living. The article is organised into four sections: 1. First, the back ground to the current situation is reviewed; 2. The sustainability concept as applied to mining is discussed; 3. Transnational mining companies are key players and the target of much of the criticism and their role is analysed in the third section; 4. We consider the issue of poverty reduction and resources development.

A Note on Minerals‐based Sustainable Development: One Viable Alternative

Anti‐mining sentiments are rife in Europe and North America. Environmental accidents associated with mining activities in numerous countries and resource wars in Africa have triggered harsh criticism, not only of mining but also of the metals industries in general. The purpose of this article is to discuss mining industry practices and responsibilities and to consider the options available for using mineral wealth as a lever for economic, social and cultural development. Our conclusions are that not only are minerals indispensable to such development, but possibly the only viable alternative for a better global standard of living. The article is organised into four sections: 1) First, the background to the current situation is reviewed; 2) The sustainability concept as applied to mining is discussed; 3) Transnational mining companies (mining TNCs) are key players and the target of much of the criticism and their role is analysed in the third section; 4) We consider the issue of poverty reduction and resou...

Livelihoods in transition: transnational gold mining operations and local change in Cajamarca, Peru

This paper examines how transnational gold mining operations are transforming rural household livelihoods in the Cajamarca region of Peru. In particular, this paper evaluates how Newmont Mining Corporation's Minera Yanacocha (MYSA) mining operations are altering access to the produced, human, natural and social capital resources that households utilize to produce their livelihoods. The paper argues that while access to produced and human capital resources has increased in the past decade, albeit unevenly, access to natural and social capital resources has declined. The paper begins with a discussion of new frameworks for evaluating local livelihood change and household access to resources. Subsequently, the paper describes Peru's new transnational mining sector, livelihoods and livelihood change in the Cajamarca region. The paper then presents the results of case study field research evaluating the impacts of MYSA on household access to resources in three communities. Finally, the paper concludes with a critical discussion of livelihoods frameworks and how they can contribute to geographic studies.

Australian Trade Unions and the Politics of Scale: Reconstructing the Spatiality of Industrial Relations

In this article, we explore responses of trade unions to the reconfiguration of the Australian industrial relations system in the 1990s. We argue that a major characteristic of these changes is the way in which they were socially constructed as necessary imperatives of globalization and new modes of production. Our interpretation focuses on the importance of geographic scale. We contend that a relational sense of scale is consistent with an analysis of the situatedness of labor practices and that Australia has witnessed a particularly striking use of “globalization” as political narrative. We then detail key features of the new industrial relations environment in Australia that have transformed a system that was once exceptional in its degree of nationally centralized negotiation and collective bargaining. The implications of two important confrontations related to the 1996 Workplace Relations Act are explored in detail: the conflicts between transnational mining giant Rio Tinto and the mineworkers’ union over reform in the Australian coal industry and the waterfront dispute over working practices and relations in Australian ports. In conclusion, we draw out some of the broader lessons from these events in the context of rescaling processes.

Livelihoods, Mining and Peasant Protests in the Peruvian Andes

This paper explores the relationships between Andean Peru's new mineral-based neoliberal political economy, protests against transnational mining corporations and the transformation of livelihoods taking place in the region. It evaluates how new transnational mining operations are dramatically altering livelihood resources in two case-study areas of the Peruvian Andes and in what ways they are linked to community mobilizations against mining operations. The paper argues that the utilization of frameworks based on resources and livelihoods can contribute to analyses of the spatial relationships between transnational mining corporations and local livelihood transformation. Through a comparative case study of two peasant protests that began in late 1999 and continue today in the Cordillera Huayhuash and Cajamarca, the paper illustrates how transnational mining corporations are transforming the environmental, social and economic contexts for livelihoods in the region and how these changes are linked to household engagement in protests against mining operations. Resumen Este estudio explora la relación entre la nueva economía política neoliberal del Perú, las protestas contra corporaciones mineras transnacionales y la transformación de los medios de subsistencia que tienen lugar en la región. Evalúa como las nuevas operaciones de la minería transnacional están alterando estos medios en dos áreas-caso en los Andes peruanos y de que manera están relacionadas con las movilizaciones comunitarias contrarias a las operaciones mineras. El autor argumenta cómo el uso de marcos basados en recursos y sustentos podría contribuir al análisis de las relaciones espaciales entre las corporaciones mineras transnacionales y la transformación del sustento local. A través de un estudio comparativo de dos protestas campesinas que comenzaron en el año 1999 y se continúan hasta hoy día en la cordillera Huayhuash y Cajamarca, el estudio muestra como tales corporaciones están transformando los contextos ambientales y socio-económicos de los medios de subsistencia dentro la región.

Freeport and the Suharto Regime, 1965-1998

In 1967 the transnational mining company Freeport was the first foreign company to sign a contract after Sukarno was sidelined by Suharto. Eventually, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, through its subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia, came to operate the biggest gold mine and lowest extraction-price copper mine in the world in the isolated mountains of the Indonesian province of West Papua. It also became politically and economically significant to the Suharto regime. In the absence of the central government, the American mining company became the de facto developer and administrator of its concession in West Papua while in the United States it served as an important political lobby group for Jakarta. With Freeport becoming the largest taxpayer in Indonesia, one of the largest employers, and eventually running one of the largest socioeconomic programs in the republic, it was described by Suharto as essential to the nation's economy. Freeport's importance encouraged the development of mutually beneficial and supportive relationships between the company, the Indonesian president, his military, and the nation's political elite. In return, Freeport was politically and physically protected by the regime. Eventually, Freeport's financing of the president and his cronies' interests in the company threatened to see Freeport violating the United States' Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Today Freeport's past relationship with Suharto has made it a high-profile target for anticorruption reformers in Indonesia. Because of the pivotal economic role the company continues to play in Jakarta and West Papua, any question of future independence for the province will be inextricably linked to the company.

Mining, Displacement and the World Bank: A Case Analysis of Compania Minera Antamina's Operations in Peru

The transformation in the structure of the world mining industry over the last decade has opened up enormous new regions for mineral exploration and development by transnational mining companies in countries in the South. This new access has inevitably brought mining companies into conflict with local communities. With the involvement of transnational advocacy networks and new global publics, these conflicts have prompted a growing transnational debate on the principles that ought to govern mining and community relationships. One effort to provide guidance on this question comes from the World Bank's Operational Directive 4.30 on Involuntary Resettlement. This paper examines the regulatory impact of this policy upon relationships between mining companies and communities, as well as its "legitimation effect" in providing standards which, once met, can serve to certify a degree of responsible behaviour on the part of the company. The analysis of the effects of the directive is taken up in the form a case study involving a transnational mining company operating in the Andes of Peru and the local communities impacted by its land acquisition project.

Environmental Harm in Developing Countries Caused by Subsidiaries of Canadian Mining Corporations: The Interface of Public and Private International Law

SummaryThis article addresses the responsibility of Canada for ensuring that Canadian transnational mining corporations do not cause environmental harm in other countries. The author discusses the liability of parent companies under Canadian law for the actions of their subsidiaries abroad and considers the jurisdictional and choice of law problems in bringing a tort action in Canadian courts. The author also considers the implications under international law of any extraterritorial application of Canadian law.

Socioeconomic impact of oil in Nigeria

Taxes and royalties from the oil industry in Nigeria have made possible massive infrastructural and social development throughout the country; this single industry continues to be the most important contributor to the national treasury. Along with oil, however, have come environmental and social problems, some severe and, in the social sector, possibly of long duration. Questionnaires were employed to solicit environmental and socioeconomic information from residents in the oil-impacted area as well as to ascertain the views of the oil companies with respect to their Nigerian operations, in particular to their socio-economic responsibilities to the local residents. Responses point to serious discontent on the part of the impacted population, especially in the most important southern (Niger Delta) oil producing region. These negative attitudes in part are based upon the impacted population’s inability to secure for itself a sufficiently large number of oil industry jobs and in part to the presence in the local community of ethnic strangers who do have such employment. There is evidence of serious environmental damage, but its biological dimension has been overshadowed by claims for monetary compensation at the local level. Data derived from these investigations might well be applicable in the wider field of trans-national mining and petroleum extraction operations in developing countries, especially to the unwritten social obligations of the expatriate firm to local residents.

The Jamaican -Alcoa contract of 1976

Abstract The 1976 bauxite agreements between the Government of Jamaica and the North American bauxite companies is one of the most interesting cases of interaction between a developing country and transnational mining companies. In this article Thomas W Walde gives a background to the agreements, analyses their basic structure and main objectives, and evaluates the results achieved in a larger historical perspective.

Problems in Acquiring Mineral Revenues for Financing Economic Development: A Case Study of Zambia During 1970–78

Abstract. During the 1970s Zambia granted tax incentives to transnational mining companies (thereby foregoing some revenue) in order to achieve expected investment benefits to the economy and government. The Government also acquired ownership interests in the companies via asset acquisition. Global market forces turned against Zambia's interests, and expected benefits were not forthcoming because company profits had become the sole tax base in the mineral sector. Zambia's experience from 1970 to 1978 suggests that it and other mineral export countries should (a) evaluate carefully whether reducing the effective tax rate on company profits actually induces investment, and (b) consider thoroughly whether a tax scheme that includes a proper mix of profit, mineral and export levies is more appropriate than a single tax base.

The experience of a Nicaraguan miner

Abstract During the last decade the mining industry in Nicaragua has undergone dramatic changes. In this report Robert Lilljequist has interviewed a Nicaraguan miner, who gives his historical perspective on these changes. We also publish a document found at the office of one of the transnational mining companies that were nationalized in 1979.

NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE CENTRE ON TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

The international community has a stake in reducing certain avoidable risks of mineral development in developing countries and in promoting more advantageous relations between these countries and transnational mining companies. In the following article, the author examines various programmes of the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations which contribute to the achievement of these objectives.

Terrores guajiros. Lecturas transversales entre las políticas de la identidad, la violencia masiva y la economía transnacional

A partir de las experiencias recientes de los indígenas wayúu de La Guajira colombiana, analizo las formas en que las prácticas de la memoria en situaciones de violencia masiva se entrecruzan con las políticas del multiculturalismo y la expansión de la minería transnacional. Describo, en primer lugar, el contexto actual de La Guajira y la expansión de la economía transnacional. A continuación hago uso del concepto de mediaciones para analizar algunas de las formas en que los pueblos indígenas vienen tramitando sus experiencias de violencia masiva. En la tercera parte analizo los acontecimientos de violencia masiva deteniéndome en sus diversas formas de articulación con otros campos. En la última parte, propongo una lectura transversal de dichos campos evidenciando las razones por las que la noción de mediaciones de memoria permite abordar los acontecimientos de violencia sin que esto signifique quedar atrapado en la fenomenología del acontecimiento o circunscripto a las gramáticas de la cultura.