Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal最新文献

{"title":"‘Even if you’re trying to do something good’: more-than-chemical separations of lithium recycling in a Norwegian science laboratory","authors":"Michelle Geraerts","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Norway's green shift includes a rapid and large-scale adoption of electric cars, which brings new challenges around the recyclability of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium from car batteries is not recycled on industrial scale today, and is commonly lost in smelters' slag. To reduce the need for mining and wasting lithium, its recyclability presents an increasingly pressing issue. Through ethnographic research in a university laboratory in Norway, this article delves deeper into what 'good recycling' might mean in the eyes of a team of scientists experimenting with lithium recovery using 'green chemistry' methods. The article foregrounds hopes, doubts, questions and concerns expressed by the scientists aspiring a green process for lithium recycling, and highlights the imaginative and material separations to which envisioned 'closed loop' lithium currently relates, beyond chemical processes. Key challenges identified, using the ethnographic concept 'more-than-chemical separations', are that closed loop lithium recycling knowledge is accumulated and concentrated in oil-wealthy Norway, through dynamics of appropriation that perpetuate uneven geographies of green transitions; that lithium recycling processes are tied to often-forgotten material requirements and additions - identified as 'open ends' of the closed loop; and that 'greening' lithium recycling may legitimise overconsumption of lithium in a vicious cycle that reproduces or even increases rather than minimises the need for primary mining. The article closes with reflections on the need for more-than-chemical connections, as openings for imagining a liveable future together in which green lithium recycling could have a key role.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101775"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145267260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of sustainable business model innovation and green competencies on business sustainability in the mining sector: Moderating role of green creativity","authors":"Helen Inseng Duh ,&nbsp;NomKhosi Radebe ,&nbsp;Nelson Chipangamate","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101784","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101784","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Value created from sustainable business model innovation (SBMI), green creativity, and dimensions of green competencies (GC) are vital for business sustainability (BS). Yet scales of SBMI and GC to be used, examination of interrelationships and holistic contributions of these key elements to generate BS are lacking. Thus, this study seeks to achieve three objectives: (1) test the SBMI and GC scales in the mining sector; (2) borrow ideas from the dynamic capability, stakeholder and value-network theories to examine the impact of three SBMI dimensions and six GC dimensions on BS; 3) examine the moderating role of employee green creativity on the relationship between BS and the six GC dimensions. Data was collected from 219 employees at two large mining companies in South Africa and Botswana. The SBMI and GC scales were aptly applicable in the mining sector. Structural equation modelling results revealed that two of the three SBMI dimensions (sustainable value proposition and capture) and three of the six GC dimensions (green knowledge, abilities and attitudes) positively impacted BS. Although green creativity significantly impacted all six GC dimensions (green awareness, knowledge, abilities, skills, attitudes and behaviours), it moderated in the BS and GC relationships only for four of GC dimensions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101784"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145267385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rethinking artisanal mining in Africa through empirical insights from Ghana and Ethiopia","authors":"Raymond Kudzawu-D’Pherdd ,&nbsp;Ekow Bartels ,&nbsp;Majjid Afom Issah","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101809","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101809","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper re-examines the evolving and contested role of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) in developing economies, with a particular focus on Ghana’s recent macroeconomic dynamics and comparative insights from Ethiopia. Although ASM is frequently associated with informality and environmental degradation, this study demonstrates its broader contributions to macroeconomic stability, industrial growth, and mineral resource discovery; dimensions that remain underexplored in the literature. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates a scoping review, policy analysis, and secondary data, we applied thematic policy analysis and introduce the <em>Max-Hilson Multiplier</em> to estimate ASM’s socioeconomic footprint. The findings reveal a strong correlation between Africa’s demographic expansion and the growth of ASM employment, affirming the sector’s increasing socioeconomic relevance. Our projections indicate that by 2030, approximately two out of every five Africans will be employed, directly or indirectly, through ASM-related activities. In Ghana, ASM has consistently accounted for 30%–43% of national gold output, even during periods of regulatory suspension. The recent restructuring of gold purchasing through the newly established GoldBod reportedly generated over US$8 billion within its first ten months of operation in 2025, reflecting the subsector’s expanding formal contribution. Ethiopia’s cooperative-based ASM framework, though smaller in scale, generated approximately US$419 million in formal mineral export revenue within a single year. The study concludes by proposing a contextualized policy framework for Ghana. It advocates for robust formalization strategies that integrate essential environmental safeguards. Furthermore, it promotes cooperative governance models tailored to the local socioeconomic context to enhance sustainability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101809"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145416953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mining-induced displacements and the ontological (in)security of local communities: Experiences of the Chiadzwa people in Zimbabwe","authors":"Simbarashe Gukurume","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101781","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101781","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article applies the concept of ontological (in)security to displacement studies to show how the process of being uprooted or displaced from familiar to unfamiliar spaces reconfigures the ontological security of the displaced Chiadzwa people in eastern Zimbabwe. I use ontological (in)security to unpack the everyday anxieties, uncertainties and precariousness of displaced people. Drawing from qualitative and ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with 30 displaced participants, this article shows how the establishment of large-scale neoliberal enclaves ruptures displaced people’s quotidian routines and socialities which unsettle their sense of being, belonging and placemaking. As such, displacement disrupts both the livelihoods and ‘lifeworlds’ of the displaced people, compelling them to rethink and renegotiate who they are, their imaginings of ‘home’ and what it means to exist and belong. I argue that displacement is not just a material process with which loss is experienced materially through land dispossession, loss of homes and other livelihood assets, but displacement is also a temporal dislocation marked by uncertainty on the present and the future as well as a loss of continuity with the past. Consequently, displacement becomes a complex configuration signified by profound existential rupture. I also argue that while displacement disrupts the material anchors of everyday life such as land, property, homes and livelihoods, it also ruptures the symbolic and affective existential foundations of being and identity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101781"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145267384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Oil governance and institutional development in de facto states: A comparative study of the Kurdistan Regional Government and Rojava","authors":"Shwan Jamal Azeez","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101818","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101818","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The contested status of de facto states poses major challenges to the development of an extractive oil industry. This article uses a Most Similar Systems Design to compare the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq and Rojava in Syria, two de facto states that share structural similarities but have experienced divergent outcomes in oil sector development. Drawing on expert interviews and secondary sources, this study identifies three key explanatory factors: the degree of patron state support, the constraints imposed by parent states, and the security conditions in each entity. The study finds that the KRG built a functioning oil industry due to sustained patron state support, limited interference from the parent state, and relative security. By contrast, Rojava struggled to develop its oil sector amid fragmented and inconsistent external backing, aggressive parent-state opposition, and repeated military threats that undermined institutional and infrastructural development. The study contributes to debates on state-building and resource governance by demonstrating how geopolitical support, legal autonomy, and a stable security environment shape the capacity of de facto states to manage and export natural resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101818"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145568424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From (De)regulation to Industrialization?: Chilean Lithium Policy in Comparative Perspective, Sebastián Carrasco (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), 220 pages, ISBN 978-3-031-77129-3","authors":"Sören Scholvin","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101799","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101799","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101799"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145320924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Opportunities for social sustainability through local governance of mine and quarry restoration","authors":"Grace N. Tully ,&nbsp;Oliver Holt ,&nbsp;Mohan Yellishetty ,&nbsp;Megan A. Farrelly ,&nbsp;David Whittle ,&nbsp;Peter M. Bach","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101797","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101797","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sustainable development in the mining and quarrying industries requires consideration of environmental, economic and social aspects across the lifecycle of sites. Yet much of the literature covers the environmental and economic lifecycle with little effort in capturing social aspects. Most studies on mine closure focus on financial barriers to rehabilitation and restoration. Literature regarding the social sustainability of extractive industries has remained focused on producing a social license to operate, which is typically established through the approval and operation phases of mining, with little attention on its role in rehabilitation and restoration. This paper reports on the opportunity to improve social considerations of mine and quarry restoration by increasing the influence of local government within the rehabilitation planning process. Drawing on strategic planning documentation from local governments and the experiences of 20 council officers in Victoria, Australia in relation to quarries within their municipalities, evidence suggests that local governments are well-positioned to provide strategic guidance to private proponents in determining restoration end-uses of value to the local community. However, to derive the most value from these interactions, changes to the regulatory framework must address considerable timeframes of mining and quarrying and limited technical and human resourcing capacity of local governments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101797"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145362664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Circular economy in the extractive frontier: Tensions and pathways for transformative change in mining","authors":"Cali Nuur ,&nbsp;Solmaz Filiz Karabag ,&nbsp;Andreas Feldmann","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101764","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101764","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The mining sector, like other sectors of the economy, is under increasing pressure to adopt circular economy (CE) principles across its value chains and core operations. This paper offers a critical and conceptually grounded contribution to understanding how CE can support systemic transformation in one of the most resource-intensive and path-dependent sectors of the global economy. It examines the structural and institutional conditions that shape the adoption of CE in mining and identifies key tensions that constrain or enable transformative change. In parallel, the paper explores emerging pathways informed by technological innovation, shifts in production routines, and the rise of new circular business models. These insights are synthesised into a multi-level framework that captures the dynamic interactions between micro-, meso-, and macro-level processes shaping CE transitions. In addition to offering a diagnostic perspective, the framework outlines concrete action points for advancing systemic change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101764"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144989604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Limbo in Lindi: Liquified natural gas, local content and displacement in Tanzania","authors":"Siri Lange ,&nbsp;Festo Gabriel","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101813","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101813","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines the interplay between international standards and national regulations in land acquisition for extractive projects, using the planned Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Tanzania as a case study. Drawing on 69 qualitative interviews conducted between 2016 and 2023, complemented by secondary sources, the study explores how differing priorities of multinational oil and gas companies and Tanzanian authorities shaped displacement and compensation processes. While investors sought to adhere to IFC Performance Standard 5 to minimise displacement, government-led initiatives for local content and industrialisation expanded land acquisition beyond the LNG site, creating confusion and frustration among project-affected people (PAP). The study highlights gaps in grievance mechanisms, contested land rights, and the limitations of “top-up” compensation strategies, which may mitigate reputational risks for investors but exacerbate local inequalities. Government acquisition of adjacent land for industrial and housing purposes disrupted local livelihoods yet aimed to generate long-term benefits through ripple effects and employment - outcomes unlikely to arise from the LNG plant itself once operational. These findings contribute to debates on resource governance, involuntary displacement, and the social impacts of pre-extraction phases in resource-rich countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101813"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145465607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plugging the gaps: Sustainable resource policy and revenue leakages in Nigeria’s small-scale lithium mining","authors":"Olushola Daniel Eniowo ,&nbsp;Hendrik Grobler ,&nbsp;Antoine F. Mulaba-Bafubiandi ,&nbsp;Moshood Onifade ,&nbsp;Olasumbo Makinde ,&nbsp;Sunday Olabisi Daramola","doi":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101788","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.exis.2025.101788","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid global demand for lithium, driven by the energy transition and the adoption of green technologies, has intensified interest in Nigeria's lithium-rich mineral deposits. However, the burgeoning small-scale lithium mining sector is plagued by significant revenue leakages that undermine the country’s economic potential and sustainable development efforts. This study examines the root causes and mechanisms of revenue losses in Nigeria’s small-scale lithium mining, with a focus on regulatory loopholes, informal trading networks, inadequate monitoring systems, and weak institutional enforcement. The study employed a qualitative research method, which involved a grounded theory approach using inductive reasoning to analyse semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Nigerian small-scale lithium sector, including miners, buyers, and regulatory officials. The field data, which were collected through interviews, were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed using <em>Atlas.ti</em> to identify patterns of leakage in royalty collection and governance. The findings reveal six major drivers of revenue leakage: false production disclosure, inadequate logistics for monitoring, lack of data collection, lack of export disclosure, lack of incentives for royalty payment-compliant miners, and mineral smuggling by foreigners. Additionally, the study identified six counterproductive policies and regulatory challenges affecting revenue generation in the sector, which include weak monitoring, bureaucracy, policy change and inconsistencies, extortion by enforcement agencies, regulatory inefficiency, and multiple taxation by different levels of government. The study concludes by underscoring the urgent need for policy reform, capacity building in regulatory institutions, and the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining operations. By addressing these structural gaps, Nigeria can not only curb revenue leakages but also position itself as a key player in the global lithium supply chain while advancing economic diversification and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47848,"journal":{"name":"Extractive Industries and Society-An International Journal","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 101788"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145118851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}