"Blood on the floor:" The nickel commodity frontier and inter-capitalist competition under green extractivism

Abstract

Major companies in the mining industry are strategizing to benefit from the expected rise in demand for energy "transition minerals" that underpin current technologies of decarbonization (such as batteries and wind turbines). This article elucidates their current strategies of accumulation through the case of BHP, the world's largest mining company. We draw on political ecology and commodity frontier theory in order to grapple with inter-capitalist competition under the current moment of green extractivism by examining firm and state practices in the nickel commodity frontier. Empirically, we examine the changing role that nickel has played in BHP's asset portfolio during the past decade where it has attempted to significantly accumulate from the expansion of the nickel commodity frontier. Yet, despite this centering of the expansion of the nickel commodity frontier for its particular strategy of accumulation under green extractivism, it has so far been unsuccessful. Given this potential for failure of company practices in commodity frontiers, we argue that green extractivism should not always and everywhere be seen as a story foretold.