Resources Policy最新文献

{"title":"Informal artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-saharan Africa: Policy evolution, sector formalization, and future trajectories","authors":"Peter Donkor ,&nbsp;Ebenezer Kwadwo Siabi ,&nbsp;Samuel Kofi Mensah ,&nbsp;Kwasi Frimpong ,&nbsp;Christopher Vuu ,&nbsp;Emmanuel Kwesi Nyantakyi ,&nbsp;Elikplim Sarah Siabi ,&nbsp;Albright Boachie- Ameyaw","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105698","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105698","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Informal Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has emerged as a significant economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), providing livelihoods for millions while presenting complex policy and environmental challenges. Despite its contributions to poverty alleviation and local development, ASM continues to be characterized by informality, environmental degradation and weak institutional oversight. This paper critically examines the evolution of ASM governance and formalization across SSA, drawing on an integrative approach that synthesizes findings from diverse qualitative and quantitative research projects, policy documents and academic literature spanning 1994 to 2024, with current insights extending into 2025. The study explores five interrelated themes: perceptions and regulatory trajectories; formalization challenges and opportunities; socio-economic and environmental dualities; institutional dynamics; and future pathways for sustainable ASM. The analysis highlights that formalization policies often adopt generic frameworks, failing to consider the sector's diversity and local realities. Furthermore, it finds that large-scale mining bias, fragmented institutional arrangements and limited community participation continue to undermine ASM reforms. By identifying gaps in current governance frameworks and synthesizing region-wide evidence, the study offers practical, context-sensitive recommendations for reform. These include differentiated licensing regimes, integration of indigenous knowledge systems, enhanced stakeholder accountability, and inclusive policy design. Overall, the paper contributes to sustainable resource governance by identifying policy interventions that balance ASM's economic potential with its environmental and social menaces.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105698"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144829820","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 legal construct of mining conflicts","authors":"Sara K. Phillips","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105706","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105706","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mining governance frameworks have largely failed to resolve the structural inequalities that perpetuate conflict and power asymmetries in resource development. While extensive literature explores the causes of mining disputes, legal scholarship has often overlooked the role of law in enabling and legitimizing these hierarchies. This article adopts a law and political economy perspective to examine two key legal mechanisms that shape mining governance: contract formation between states and foreign investors, and investor-state dispute settlement. Contracts between host states and multinational mining companies establish the legal foundation of extractive projects, structuring power relations and limiting state regulatory flexibility. The widespread inclusion of arbitration clauses, often found in both investment treaties and contracts, further entrenches these dynamics by allowing investors to challenge state actions through investor-state dispute settlement, a process that frequently prioritizes investor rights over environmental and human rights protections. By focusing on these legal mechanisms, this article challenges dominant governance paradigms that attribute mining conflicts primarily to weak institutions or corruption, instead highlighting the legal scaffolding that enables extractive industries conflicts to proliferate. Drawing on insights from socio-legal research, the article argues that targeted legal reforms, particularly in contract design and dispute resolution, could mitigate mining conflicts and promote more equitable resource governance. While law alone is insufficient to address the complex socio-economic and environmental challenges associated with mining, understanding its constitutive role in shaping market hierarchies is a critical starting point. The article concludes with policy recommendations aimed at reconfiguring legal frameworks to support fairer and more sustainable extractive governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105706"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144829893","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":"Scrutinizing challenges to adopting digital technologies in the mining industry: A systematic review through PRISMA and bibliometric analysis","authors":"Javad Pakdel,&nbsp;Ismail Erol","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105713","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105713","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While the existing literature acknowledges the transformative potential of digitalization in the Mining Industry (MI), it remains highly fragmented and lacks a unified analytical synthesis. This systematic review aims to consolidate and evaluate existing knowledge by identifying the key challenges to digital transformation within the MI. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, studies were systematically retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus, using a search strategy refined through exclusion of irrelevant domains and restricted to peer-reviewed English-language articles published between 2011 and 2024. A total of 41 studies met the eligibility criteria, based on inclusion of substantive discussion on digital implementation in the MI. Risk of bias was not formally assessed due to the scoping nature and methodological heterogeneity of the studies reviewed. In addition, bibliometric analysis was employed to examine publication trends, co-authorship patterns, and thematic keyword clusters. The findings reveal sixteen core challenges—ranging from high initial investment costs, legacy system constraints, and workforce resistance to regulatory ambiguities and infrastructural limitations in remote sites. Emerging technological concerns, particularly in cybersecurity and interoperability, also appear to impede large-scale digital commitment. Bibliometric insights further demonstrate the prevalence of automation- and sustainability-focused research, with recent scholarly momentum observed around blockchain-enabled traceability and AI-integrated monitoring. Although this synthesis provides insights, the evidence base is limited by uneven regional representation, conceptual dispersion, and the lack of comparative frameworks. No funding was received for this study, and it was not registered in a formal systematic review registry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105713"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826784","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":"Reforming legal frameworks for combating gas flaring in Nigeria: A comparative legal analysis and sustainable solutions","authors":"Olusola Joshua Olujobi,&nbsp;Nathaniel Tolulope Ape","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105721","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105721","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nigeria, the seventh-largest oil producer, faces significant challenges from gas flaring, impacting the environment, economy, and public health. Recent assessments reveal that Nigeria suffers significant annual economic setbacks due to gas flaring, with estimated losses ranging between NGN 500 billion and NGN 700 billion. These losses extend beyond the mere dissipation of valuable hydrocarbon assets; they also incorporate the cumulative costs of environmental degradation, increased public health liabilities, and missed opportunities for revenue generation through alternative gas utilisation. The enormity of this economic toll accentuates the urgent necessity for comprehensive legal and policy interventions. It further validates the empirical relevance and policy significance of this study, which seeks to advance sustainable regulatory responses to gas flaring in Nigeria. This study assesses Nigeria’s legal framework for addressing gas flaring, identifying challenges, opportunities, and future directions for fostering cleaner and more sustainable practices. It examines both national and international legal frameworks, comparing Nigeria’s anti-gas flaring laws with those of other oil-producing nations, including Norway, the US, and Russia. Findings reveal that Nigeria lacks a customised, enforceable legal framework aligned with international conventions like the Kyoto Protocol, UNFCCC, and the Paris Agreement. Despite its substantial gas reserves, Nigeria continues to experience environmental degradation and economic losses. Key findings reveal weak regulatory enforcement, inadequate gas infrastructure, and limited sanctions, all of which hinder effective legislative implementation. The study underscores the urgent need for robust legislation and recommends adoption of international standards from the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement to combat gas flaring. Policy recommendations include stricter sanctions, stronger enforcement, stakeholder engagement, use of advanced gas capture technologies, and international collaborations. These measures are essential to mitigate gas flaring, reduce climate change impacts, and advance sustainable development in Nigeria.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105721"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826785","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":"Assessing technological trends in mining fleet energy management toward sustainable mineral extraction","authors":"Jaime A. Mesa ,&nbsp;Diego Hincapie-Florez ,&nbsp;Melkis Bobadilla-Vasquez ,&nbsp;Lesme Corredor ,&nbsp;Oscar Pupo-Roncallo ,&nbsp;Arturo Gonzalez-Quiroga","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105714","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105714","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The mining industry faces increasing environmental concerns and the imperative to align with global initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, so adopting green mining practices has become critical. This systematic review evaluates energy management strategies for mining haul trucks, focusing on their role in achieving sustainable mining operations. This review highlights integrating innovative approaches that minimize environmental impact while maximizing operational efficiency. It synthesizes current trends in fuel reduction, alternative energy adoption, and technological innovation. Drawing on proprietary data from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), the study employs a structured, three-tiered evidence mapping approach that includes benchmarking, bibliometric analysis, and content evaluation. It delivers (i) a policy-oriented taxonomy of energy-management strategies for mining haul trucks, (ii) a comparative gap analysis aligned with the SDGs and Paris targets, and (iii) nine priority research directions to accelerate fleet decarbonization. By combining technical insight with policy relevance, this review advances beyond previous studies that focused narrowly on individual technologies or lacked a systemic policy framework. Relevant topics were identified, such as using alternative fuels, energy recovery systems, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) -driven optimization techniques. The findings of this study offer insights into the development of responsible resource extraction practices, emphasizing the need for continuous innovation to achieve a resilient and low-carbon future in the mining sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105714"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144809557","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":"Igniting sparks for the transition of a coal mining region: The role of firm- and system-level agency to innovate, diversify and create new growth paths in a regional innovation system","authors":"Jan Henrik Gruenhagen ,&nbsp;Janice Terrill ,&nbsp;Stephen Cox","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105702","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105702","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global transitions to a low-emissions future pose structural, economic and societal challenges for regions heavily dependent on coal mining. Regional and firm-level inertia with a lack of diversification activities and an absence of innovation risks a trajectory of path dependence and negative lock-in. Integrating regional innovation systems and evolutionary economic geography perspectives, this study analyses a regional innovation system heavily dependent on the coal mining industry during a period of relative stability before a potential period of industrial and regional decline. Relying on a case study methodology, we illustrate innovation implicative dynamics of both the firm and system that reinforce or challenge the path dependence of the Mackay region in Queensland, Australia. By differentiating between firm- and broader system-level agency, we highlight that firm-level diversification and innovation activities prevail over system-level agency, so that it is the agency of individual firm actors that shows the potential to create new growth paths on the system level. We also illustrate a lack of pronounced system-level agency, suggesting the prevalence of obstacles for a regional transition away from coal mining. Our findings emphasise the importance of the role of visions and entrepreneurial orientation among firms to lay the groundwork for regional diversification and driving change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105702"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826783","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 political economy of breaking European dependence on Russian gas","authors":"Adnan Vatansever ,&nbsp;Andreas C. Goldthau","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105696","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105696","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a landmark moment for Russian gas in Europe. Having built ties for five decades, and having become the continent's main source of supply, Russia's exports of gas to Europe in 2024 were back to the levels witnessed in the mid-1970s. Now, Russia is downgraded to a marginal supplier. Europe has enacted rapid and comprehensive policies breaking with the past. And yet the question of the future of Russian gas looms on the horizon of European energy and climate policies. The present paper proposes a political economy heuristic based on sunk costs, incumbency, and policy ideology to explain Europe's past reliance on Russian gas and its varied responses to its displacement since the Ukraine war. By extension, the heuristic allows judging whether Russian gas may see a return to Europe, should Moscow's war end and a window of opportunity open up for revisiting external supply options. We empirically test this heuristic by assessing why Europe's dependence on Russian gas increased, and the extent to which the policy pathway of select European countries falls in line with assumptions derived from behavioralist approaches, material interests and ideational factors. Here, the paper provides an assessment, based on the heuristic, of the three divergent responses that have emerged since the start of the war in Ukraine: maintain Russian gas imports, replace Russian gas with other sources of gas, and replace Russian gas with renewable energy. In doing so, the paper provides a proof of concept for judging the future of Russian gas in the European import balance and thus fills an important gap in the pertinent academic literature by examining key political economy factors that shape EU-Russian energy relations going forward.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 105696"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144810549","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":"Could natural resources and financial development influence the markets for renewable energy in developing economies?","authors":"Ishaya Tambari ,&nbsp;Pierre Failler ,&nbsp;Shabbar Jaffry ,&nbsp;He Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105691","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105691","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Governments and stakeholders are prioritising sustainable development for economic growth and environmental quality. Oil-producing economies rely heavily on oil revenues, which can negatively impact the environment. This dilemma raises the question of protecting environmental quality or pursuing economic development. Financial development is crucial for technological innovation, energy-efficient projects, and renewable energy generation. This paper applied the Methods of ‘Moments Quantile Regression’ to examine the impact of financial development on renewable energy (RE) generation in the top three net oil exporters and importers from 1990 to 2020. The results show that financial development is consistently associated with higher levels of RE generation per capita in these countries. Meanwhile, the lack of a statistically significant association between natural resource rents and RE generation suggests that abundant natural resources do not inherently constrain RE development in these African countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 105691"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144756698","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 blessing and curse of natural resource dependence: A stochastic frontier analysis on productivity, resource rent, governance and sustainability","authors":"Woon Kan Yap ,&nbsp;Nor Liyana M. Anuar ,&nbsp;Yun Cyn Choong","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105695","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105695","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study <strong>examines</strong> the relationship between natural resource dependence and total factor productivity (TFP) and how institutional governance and CO2 emissions condition this relationship. Natural resources are finite with limited scalability; consequently, resource-rich economies must eventually diversify, incurring an opportunity cost in the form of potential productivity losses when capital is reallocated from established extractive sectors. To quantify this opportunity cost, we apply a stochastic frontier framework to a panel of resource-dependent countries, allowing the marginal effect of natural resource rents on TFP to be recovered through the estimation of technical inefficiency. The results indicate that greater resource dependence generally raises TFP, but only in environments characterised by weak governance and high CO2 emissions. However, below a certain threshold level of dependence, improved institutional governance emerges as the principal driver of productivity. Two policy actions follow. First, consolidate and effectively regulate the extractive sector to capture the scale economies. Second, reallocate a portion of the resulting higher natural resource rents to more productive industries in which the country possesses a comparative advantage, including frontier industries. The successful implementation of these policy actions hinges on improved governance that boosts efficiency and transparency. In turn, economic diversification presents an opportunity for a green transition due to traditional extractive industries being compelled to modernise extraction with cleaner, more efficient capital in anticipation of a shift in labour toward emerging growth sectors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 105695"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144749470","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":"Economic viability and risk management of auger mining in Indonesia using real option valuation under volatile market conditions","authors":"Abdullah Alghani,&nbsp;Dzikri Firmansyah Hakam","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105690","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105690","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Coal is one of the commodities that contribute the most to Indonesia's GDP, as well as to other coal-exporting countries such as Australia, China, India, and others. Currently, many coal companies in Indonesia face challenges in optimizing their coal reserves to increase profitability. One method that has proven effective from both technical and economic perspectives is auger mining. However, with global coal prices declining in 2023 after experiencing a significant increase following the pandemic in 2022 (Iea, 2023), the economic feasibility of auger mining for companies, particularly in the long term, has come into question. This research is the first study aimed at assessing the economic feasibility of auger mining using DCF simulation, Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS), and Real Option Valuation (ROV) Binomial Lattice, based on a real-case problem under uncertain coal market conditions, and evaluating the risks of its implementation.</div><div>This study aims to assess the feasibility of auger mining based on three scenarios: Auger Type A (higher productivity with higher mobilization cost) under Standard and Aggressive Utilization, and Auger Type B (lower productivity with lower mobilization cost) under Standard Utilization. Based on the analysis using the DCF method, all three scenarios yield positive economic values (NPV, IRR, and PI). However, the Auger Type A Standard Utilization scenario was selected for further analysis using the MCS and ROV methods, as it is considered the most realistic scenario both technically and in terms of medium-level economic valuation compared to the other two scenarios. According to the DCF analysis, the Auger Type A Standard Utilization scenario has an NPV of $1.71 million, with a break-even point that is relatively close to the base-case coal price ($52.24/ton), decreasing by only $5.27 (10.08 %). The risk of the project having a negative NPV in the future is 25 % (MCS) and 38 % (ROV). The ROV – Binomial Lattice analysis provides an added option value of $0.16 million if the project is terminated at any future point.</div><div>Based on these results, the auger project does have a positive NPV but is considered moderate-to-high risk. Therefore, several recommendations are needed to improve the project's valuation and minimize risks, such as minimizing operational costs, including the break-even coal price in work contracts, optimizing the values of Physical Availability (PA) and Utilization Availability (UA), and negotiating flexibility for terminating the project in the future if the NPV becomes negative.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 105690"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144738263","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}