ABSTRACT
Mining is far from being a new activity, but its scale and nature have changed in recent decades. In earlier times, when working conditions and wages were the main source of social political struggles, mining gave rise to economic distribution debates. However, this changed from the 1980s onwards as the throughput of energy and materials in the world economy significantly amplified and the mining frontier expanded, driven by growth in consumption and production. Technological advances, along with increasingly favourable commodity prices and neoliberal reforms, have made previously uneconomical reserves accessible. As the industry has penetrated ecologically and socially vulnerable areas to extract resources, tensions between supporters and opponents of mining projects have intensified and focused increasingly on social ecological concerns in addition to economic ones. From a social metabolic perspective [Chapter 11], mining conflicts involve base metals (e.g. copper and zinc) and mineral commodities used by energy and construction industries (e.g. coal, uranium, and sand) that are needed for the growing material economy. Precious metals (e.g. gold and silver) are demanded for speculation, stores of value and social objects, rather than for production, although they do have industrial applications.
