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"The State, mining, development and sustainability: pro-mining discourses" [2019] ELECD 2514; in Field, Tracy-Lynn (ed), "State Governance of Mining, Development and Sustainability" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 42

Book Title: State Governance of Mining, Development and Sustainability

Editor(s): Field, Tracy-Lynn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: The State, mining, development and sustainability: pro-mining discourses

Number of pages: 47

Abstract/Description:

There are a variety of discourses on mining, development, sustainability and the role of the State that have crystallized since the early 1970s. Discourses reflect how we understand the world, but also reconstitute that world, reproducing perceptions of persons, social relations, action and interaction and our grasp of the material world in a particular way. This chapter presents the emergence and key claims of four ‘pro-mining’ discourses: the sustainable mineral development consensus; responsible mining; neoextractivism; and critical and strategic minerals. Pro-mining discourses assume a robust, positive connection between progress, development, economic growth and the promotion of the mineral extractives industry. International financial institutions, the mining industry and States themselves have defined varying roles for the State to promote a developmental and sustainable mining industry. Pro-mining discourses acknowledge a protective role for the State, but tend to underplay mining’s social and environmental impacts.