Small-scale gold mining and the COVID-19 pandemic: Conflict and cooperation in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Highlights COVID-19 exposes pre-existing conflicts occurring in ASGM in the Brazilian Amazon. Existing failures of the state to support ASGM communities increase vulnerability. Miners’ capacity for self-organization is fundamental to cope with the crisis. Cooperation may provide mechanisms tool for post-crisis conflict transformation.

Volatility of International Commodity Prices in Times of COVID-19: Effects of Oil Supply and Global Demand Shocks

“…Four main studies are closest to the present study in the contemporary COVID-19 literature focusing on extractive industries, namely: Laing (2020), Bernauer and Slowey (2020), Francis and Pegg (2020) and Calvimontes et al (2020). First, while Laing (2020) has assessed the economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and provided implications for the mining industry, the analysis is exploratory and based on March and April 2020 observations.…”

Volatility of international commodity prices in times of COVID-19: Effects of oil supply and global demand shocks

“…Four main studies are closest to the present study in the contemporary COVID-19 literature focusing on extractive industries, namely: Laing (2020), Bernauer andSlowey (2020), Francis andPegg (2020) and Calvimontes et al (2020). First, while Laing (2020) has assessed the economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and provided implications for the mining industry, the analysis is exploratory and based on March and April 2020 observations.…”

“…March 2020) and does not directly focus on products of extractive industries because the corresponding development project is understood within the framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Third, Bernauer and Slowey (2020) have focused on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the extractive industry and indigenous communities in Canada while Calvimontes et al (2020) have been concerned with how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected cooperation and conflict in small-scale and artisanal mining of gold in the Brazilian Amazon. Both studies which exclusively focus on one country and respectively also have the shortcoming of being exploratory because of the absence of empirical analyses that inform corresponding conclusions.…”

‘We have so many challenges’: Small‐scale mining, Covid‐19 and constant interruptions in West Africa

“…Yet, while fully recognizing crucial observations made by colleagues earlier in the pandemic about its impacts on ASM (e.g. Calvimontes et al 2020;Hilson et al 2021;Thierens & Mawala 2020;), and notwithstanding that it feels counterintuitive at a time when our own lives are also severely constrained due to the pandemic, our conversations with miners in Ghana during the past few months highlight that, for them, Covid-19 materializes as 'just' another interruption to lives and operations that are marked by constant interruptions of various kinds.…”

“…Academics are scrutinizing the impact of Covid-19 on industrial mining (Bainton et al 2020;Laing 2020) as well artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). In the case of ASM, scholars have particularly pointed to Covid-19related effects such as limited mobility, slow markets, low mineral prices and rising costs, and have considered how these might exacerbate vulnerabilities and inequalities (Calvimontes et al 2020;Hilson et al 2021;Thierens & Mawala 2020; see also the contributions to the Delve Covid-19 Impact Reporting intiative 3 ), but have also illuminated miners' capacity to self-organize, adapt and find solutions to cope with this crisis (Calvimontes et al 2020).…”