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Open-pit mining has become an iconic face of the Anthropocene. I looked at two Andean mining projects to explore the technologies and financial mechanisms driving it. #AAG2021Permalink On twitter.com
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The two projects are the Sumitomo Corporation’s San Cristóbal mine, currently the largest in Bolivia, and Bear Creek Mining’s fruitless Santa Ana mine, which was blocked by protests in Peru in 2011.Permalink On twitter.com
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Sumitomo Corporation, a massive firm w/ 70,000 employees, access to capital, and abundant proprietary equipment typifies the dominant model of mining corporation of the 20th century.Permalink On twitter.com
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Bear Creek Mining, on the other hand, is, in essence, a portfolio of mineral leases, prospecting reports, and feasibility studies.Permalink On twitter.com
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Major mining firms employ thousands of miners and engineers, own large-scale equipment, have well-developed mineral processing and sales networks, and turn their massive throughput of minerals into a source of capital, which they can then risk in new mines.Permalink On twitter.com
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Junior mining firms like Bear Creek have none of these. Bear Creek's head office, suite 1400 of this building in Vancouver is shared with 9 other mining firms. Its Canadian payroll was just $1M/year. @CarwilBJ/1198060183148277760Permalink On twitter.com
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In international arbitration court, Peru argued that: "Bear Creek is not a 'mining' company at all. A ‘mining’ company is a company that builds and operates mines. Bear Creek has done neither."Permalink On twitter.com
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Deeply offended, Bear Creek countered with expert witness statements arguing that junior mining firms are vital to the exploration and development of mines.Permalink On twitter.com
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In turn, Peru said these tiny firms are unprepared for the realities of winning community approval for a mine, much less operating its successfully… Bear Creek, they argued before the ICSID, "maintains that it played no role in causing the region-wide social uprising that…Permalink On twitter.com
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"…specifically demanded the cancellation of the Santa Ana Project. Such an implausible claim could only come from a company that had never before navigated the regulatory and social pathways needed to engage local communities and earn support for an operational mine."Permalink On twitter.com
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In any case, the long-term game plan of junior mining firms is to get bought out or "partnered" with by a major mining corporation.Permalink On twitter.com
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However, the ecosystem of a few major mining firm and thousands of gossamer-winged junior mining start-ups makes life much harder on communities who land they covet…Permalink On twitter.com
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1,216 mining firms were listed on the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges as of November 2017, constituting “57% of the global mining financing.” Canadian-traded firms supervised over nine thousand mining projectsPermalink On twitter.com
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Instead of a few majors making bets on where to place a mine next, hundreds of juniors are staking claims for damaging development.Permalink On twitter.com
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These ventures are nearly invulnerable to public scrutiny or activist pressure in their home countries. In effect, the major mining corporations can outsource the economic and reputational risk of developing new mines, while drawing in speculative capital.Permalink On twitter.com
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Layers of interlocking machinery—the concession block system, neoliberal streamlining of the investment process, junior mining start-ups, and the Canada-based exchanges on which they trade—opens vast areas to investment by speculative capital.Permalink On twitter.com
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As the Aymarazo uprising against the Santa Ana mine shows, these projects are not invulnerable to community pressure. But pressure needed to be shifted from corporate targets to state mechanisms to be effective.Permalink On twitter.com
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Video of the talk is here: youtube.com/watch?v=39OdBsNe9lEOn twitter.com