Lost in the dust: Institutional perspective of the mining disasters and surrounding communities in environments with institutional voids

Abstract

Although scholars have dedicated their efforts to analyzing technical risks in the extractive industry and a body of research has generated impressive insights into these risks, continued tailings dam disasters suggest critical aspects are being disregarded and there are significant gaps that need filling. In this study, we attempt to progress our understanding of how institutional voids affect the way in which mining firms manage the risk of tailings dam failures and the resulting impacts on surrounding communities. Considering the context of a traditional and key mining producer globally, we examined the two largest tailings dam failures in the history of the mining industry and their impact on a community located near where the two spills occurred, which is now facing the imminent risk of two further tailings dam failures upstream of the village. We adopted a triangulated approach and performed an extensive document analysis of dam failures and, 209 interviews, over two years, with subgroups of local people and related actors.