Resources Policy最新文献

{"title":"Mining contracts and investment law: Governance, disputes, and sustainability in Iran","authors":"Satar Mahdevari","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105861","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105861","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global mining sector serves as a vital engine for economic development, where effective governance requires a careful balance between national sovereignty, international investment protection, and sustainable resource management. This study explores this balance with a focus on Iran, a country richly endowed with substantial mineral resources and possessing strong potential for sustainable sectoral growth. Like many resource-rich nations, Iran's mining governance is shaped by its distinctive historical trajectory and geopolitical circumstances, encompassing legal frameworks, specialized contractual models, evolving engagement with international arbitration, and the operational challenges presented by external economic pressures and inequitable sanctions. This paper employs a qualitative-analytical methodology to examine how international instruments such as ICSID and UNCITRAL arbitration rules, bilateral investment treaties, and ESG standards can constructively inform Iran's mining governance. By drawing insights from landmark arbitration cases and reform experiences in selected comparator jurisdictions, the analysis demonstrates that modernizing legal and contractual frameworks, embedding robust sustainability and community safeguards, and strengthening dispute-resolution mechanisms can enhance investor confidence while protecting Iran's national interests. The study concludes with a phased, actionable reform roadmap designed to harmonize sovereignty, investor rights, and social equity. Key recommendations include clarifying arbitration pathways, diversifying contractual models, institutionalizing community benefit-sharing, and pursuing gradual alignment with global standards. Through such deliberate and credible reforms, Iran is well-positioned to unlock its considerable mineral potential, attract sustainable investment, and emerge as a responsible participant in global resource governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 105861"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Revisiting the resource curse in Zambia: Institutional mediation and the long-run effects of resource rents","authors":"Chali Nondo ,&nbsp;Harun Ozturker","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105859","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105859","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the associations among mineral rents, institutional quality, and key development outcomes in Zambia from 1970 to 2021. Rather than treating the resource curse as a single outcome, the analysis evaluates whether resource dependence operates through distinct economic channels and whether institutional quality mediates these relationships uniformly or selectively. Using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds-testing framework, the study estimates long-run and short-run associations across three models: GDP per capita, manufacturing value added, and capital formation. The results reveal pronounced heterogeneity. Mineral rents are positively associated with GDP per capita in the long run, yet short-run dynamics exhibit volatility and mean reversion, with alternating signs on lagged rent terms consistent with commodity price cycles. By contrast, mineral rents are negatively associated with capital formation, suggesting that greater rent dependence coincides with weaker investment allocation and slower structural transformation. Real exchange rate appreciation is negatively associated with manufacturing performance, which is consistent with Dutch Disease pressures. Institutional quality, proxied by the Polity IV index, enters negatively in all three long-run equations. The interaction between institutional quality and mineral rents is positive and statistically significant, indicating that stronger institutions are associated with a weaker adverse relationship between rents and economic performance. However, this moderation does not necessarily offset adverse investment dynamics or income volatility. Overall, the findings demonstrate that institutional mediation of resource rents is outcome-specific rather than uniform. Resource wealth alone is insufficient for structural transformation, and institutional reforms are most effective when paired with policies that stabilize revenues, manage exchange-rate pressures, and strengthen investment allocation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 105859"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The ‘past’ in the present (and futures) of a colliery basti: Case study of a resettled coal community in Eastern India","authors":"Pooja Narnoli,&nbsp;Deepak K. Mishra","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105856","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105856","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A resettled colony is visualised as a living space which provides agency to individuals, groups, and institutions to reconstruct the lives and livelihoods of the displaced. Through individual and collective memories of the resettled, meanings are infused into the lived space by real and symbolic acts of reconnecting. The collective and individual memories of the pasts are critical to the daily reproduction of livelihoods, meaning and identities of the resettled. Hence, resource communities that move away from coal spaces navigate their livelihoods through space and time, wherein multiple linkages to their overlapping social identities of indigeneity, class, caste and gender, mining identity and the resettled identity are reinstated, rediscovered and/or reimagined in the process of remembering or forgetting the past relative to the present while seeking for alternative livelihood futures. Through an ethnographic study of the displaced colliery <em>bastis</em> in the Jharia coalfields of Jharkhand who are resettled away from coal, we discuss the role of memories in multiple interrelated spheres: the relational living space that intersects with the neighbourhoods, the public spaces and ‘social’ infrastructure, the livelihoods space, and the institutionalised spaces of governance, and thereafter, relate these experiences to the future pathways for the resource community. The authors find that resettled livelihoods, in the multiplicity of identities, are intertwined with immediate and distant memories, hence migration or local history provides alternative pathways to the young and the older generations, respectively while many of them remain entangled in the circuits of mining capital by moving back to coal.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 105856"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146049118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantifying operational uncertainties in mining machinery fleet productivity using a stochastic Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) analysis","authors":"A. Jandaghi Jafari ,&nbsp;S.H. Hoseinie ,&nbsp;R. Bagherpour ,&nbsp;M. Mofidi ,&nbsp;B. Ghodrati","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105874","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105874","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In resource-rich but data-constrained mining regions, deterministic estimates of equipment productivity often mask critical operational risks, leading to flawed strategic decisions on fleet investment, maintenance, and national resource forecasting. This paper bridges a key gap in the literature by introducing a probabilistic Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) framework that quantifies uncertainty in the shovel–truck fleet performance at one of the world's largest copper mines. Using Monte Carlo simulation calibrated with extensive field data—including photogrammetry-based cycle production and dispatch logs—we model joint variability in availability, utilization, and performance efficiency. Results reveal wide OEE distributions: 8–52% (mean: 25%) for shovels and 27–53% (mean: 38%) for dump trucks, where low utilization, driven by suboptimal dispatch and operational coordination, is the dominant constraint. Critically, we demonstrate that probabilistic OEE is essential for robust, risk-aware planning in aging fleets. The framework offers a low-cost, transferable tool for evidence-based resource policy and operational optimization in developing economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 105874"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From rents to rights: How resource dependence shapes democratic trajectories","authors":"Roland Brandtjen","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105849","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105849","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article offers a systematic, descriptive mapping of how natural resource dependence, economic development, and democratic governance co-vary across 167 countries from 2006 to 2024, with focused analysis for 2012–2021 when resource-rent data are available. Using a deliberately non-causal correlation design, it examines associations among the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, GDP per capita (PPP, constant 2021 USD), and total natural resource rents (percent of GDP). The article makes three contributions. First, it updates global democracy–resource–development patterns for the current wave of democratic backsliding. Second, it shows that the strength and even the sign of democracy–resource correlations vary markedly across regions, consistent with the view that institutional quality and economic diversification mediate rentier and resource-curse dynamics. Third, it revisits modernization claims by documenting that democracy is strongly associated with higher prosperity levels globally yet often correlates with slower growth in mature democracies while remaining positively associated with growth in several developing regions. The conclusion outlines an institutionally moderated typology of resource–democracy configurations and highlights implications for governing fossil fuels and emerging “green transition” minerals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 105849"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strategic competition in lithium mining and refining: A multi-stage game theoretic model","authors":"Maxwell Brown,&nbsp;Mirali Seyedrezaei","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105823","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105823","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this work, we develop and apply a model of global lithium production that captures strategic behavior across mining and refining stages. We integrate multiple types of game formulations into a bi-level framework and calibrate the resulting system using a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC); in doing so, the model aligns closely with observed data despite sparse information, while enforcing game-theoretic equilibrium conditions. First, we show that the strategic game setup (e.g., Cournot vs. Stackelberg) can impact the ability of the MPEC to match observed data, particularly for fringe and follower actors. Next, we estimate the deadweight loss from market power across upstream and downstream stages. Results show that market structure significantly influences production levels, pricing, and the allocation of surplus, with the most pronounced effects observed in the relatively more concentrated downstream refining markets. Finally, we simulate the effects of exogenous entry to highlight how new supply at mining and refining stages could affect incumbent producers’ profits and demonstrate differences in each actor’s market exposure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 105823"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bibliometric and systematic analysis of literature on royalties in non-renewable resources","authors":"Juan Ignacio Guzmán ,&nbsp;Patricio Faúndez ,&nbsp;Mariel Carrión","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105829","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105829","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper presents a mixed-methods review of academic research on royalties in non-renewable resources. Drawing on 156 peer-reviewed articles published between 1978 and 2025, we combine bibliometric indicators (Bibliometrix), text mining (VOSviewer co-occurrence with binary counting), and directed qualitative content analysis to map the evolution, structure, and substantive focus of the field. The literature grows gradually over time (CAGR 1.52 % up to 2024) with a peak in 2023, and remains concentrated in a handful of journals. International collaboration is modest: 15.75 % of publications are multi-country. To gauge the sensitivity of scholarship to market conditions, we correlate annual publication counts with real commodity prices: the annual correlation with WTI oil is 0.38 (0.53 with a two-year lag), and with LME copper is 0.54 (0.67 with a three-year lag), indicating that publication surges tend to follow commodity booms with short lags, consistent with rent-seeking pressures and policy debates triggered by rising rents.</div><div>Term co-occurrence reveals three recurrent vocabularies that structure the field: (1) Royalties in fiscal regimes (comparisons of <em>ad valorem</em>, specific, and profit-based designs; revenue properties and cyclicality), (2) Royalty design and institutions (legal/contractual architectures, administrative mechanics, and project-level effects such as cut-off grades and resource sterilization), and (3) Economic and developmental outcomes (intergovernmental distribution, local development, governance). Bridging terms such as revenue and rate indicate partial overlap, yet the fiscal-design and developmental strands have advanced largely in parallel.</div><div>By integrating science-mapping with qualitative synthesis, the study systematizes a fragmented literature and highlights priorities for future work: stronger cross-country designs, closer linkage of fiscal design to developmental evaluation, and attention to royalty reform under the energy-transition and critical-minerals agenda.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 105829"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Limits to base metals recycling: A meta-analysis of the literature from 2013 to 2023","authors":"François Guy,&nbsp;Florian Fizaine","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105850","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105850","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recycling is the most frequent lever cited in public and scientific debate to help reach a circular economy. However, end-of-life recycling rate (EOL-RR) of metals seems to be stagnating for decades. In order to understand why, this article takes a look at the literature on limits to base metals recycling, through bibliometric and textual analysis. The goal is two-fold: identifying limits affecting base metals recycling and understanding how the literature about it is structured. We include publications having limits to base metal recycling on end-of-life wastes written in the text, between 2013 and 2023. Our sample comprised of 372 publications, both from scientific and gray literature, illustrate a growing interest in this topic over the years, mostly carried by peer-reviewed articles and reports from various institutions.</div><div>The results indicate that most limits to recycling are technical or economical by nature, and affect mostly either the recovery step or the overall process at once. The literature itself is focused on OECD countries and overlooks recycling chains in developing countries. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation, we observe an underlying structure around specific topics, with a focus on batteries, steel recycling and electronic wastes as three notably distinct clusters. Our findings can help policymakers define public policies in order to increase recycling at a global level while reducing side-effects between metals recycling chains, and scholars to close the identified research gaps.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 105850"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146078296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uncovering the whys behind the prevalence of galamsey despite regulatory efforts; A principal-agent model analysis","authors":"Mercedes Asamani","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105854","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105854","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Illegal mineral resource mining remains a troubling issue in the Global South. In Ghana, illegal small-scale gold mining commonly known as “galamsey”- a term coined from “gather and sell” has become a major environmental, health, and economic challenge in Ghana. While the current literature is useful in establishing motivating factors for illegal small-scale mining activities, they fail to account for the relationship dynamics between principals and agents, rational choices or incentives, and the misalignment of interests that could be accounting for the proliferation of ‘galamsey’ activities in Ghana. Using the Principal-Agent theory as an analytical framework for the prevalence of galamsey in Ghana, the paper uncovers and provides deeper insights into the prevalence of illegal small-scale mining in Ghana despite regulatory efforts and policy interventions. The paper argues that galamsey persists not because of the absence of policy interventions or regulatory efforts but as a result of misaligned interests and incentives structures, and weak accountability in delegated governance relationships. The paper offers key policy takeaways in realigning incentives to curb illegal mining activities through multilateralization, investment in monitoring and technologies, licensing reforms, refocusing livelihood policies, environmental education campaigns, and stiffer sanctions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 105854"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146038703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Converting cocoa farms into gold mines – negotiations, compensation and outcomes for farmers in Ghana","authors":"Josephine Montford ,&nbsp;Regina Birner ,&nbsp;Christine Bosch ,&nbsp;Boateng Kyereh","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105843","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.105843","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 105843"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}