Land, labour and capital: Small and large-scale miners in Papua New Guinea

Nicholas Bainton, John R. Owen, Simon Kenema and John Burton

Resources Policy, 2020, vol. 68, issue C

Abstract: This paper provides the first detailed characterisation of the interface dynamics between artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and large-scale mining (LSM) activities in Papua New Guinea, recently termed ‘ASM-LSM interfaces’. We characterise these interfaces across the project lifecycle at operational, non-operating, and future mines. Despite industry commitment to contemporary standards for social responsibility, our study shows that large-scale miners actively co-construct ASM-LSM interfaces and contribute to their intensification, which often results in violence, dispossession, and entrenched inequalities. By focussing on interfaces, we identify the influences and effects on the underlying elements that small and large-scale mining activities have in common, namely land, labour and capital. This provides the basis to chart the ‘mining encounters’ among the host of actors entangled in these extractive zones, and the competing interests that arise at each resource conjuncture.

Keywords: Resource governance; Conflict; Poverty alleviation; Sustainable development; Extractive industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420720304967
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:68:y:2020:i:c:s0301420720304967

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101805

Access Statistics for this article

Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert

More articles in Resources Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().