From Dearth to El Dorado: Andean Nature, Plate Tectonics, and the Ontologies of Ecuadorian Resource Wealth

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the Ecuadorian government has pledged to convert the nation into a "mining country" of global standing. Contemporary claims of mineral wealth, however, stand in stark contrast to previous assessments. Indeed, through much of the 20 th century, geologists described Ecuador as a country of mineral dearth. Exploring the process through which Ecuador seemingly transitioned from a nation of resource scarcity to one of mineral plenty, I demonstrate how assessments of Ecuador's resource potential relate to ideas of Andean nature. Promoters of resource abundance have emphasized Andean uniformity and equivalence-the notion that Ecuador's mineral wealth is inevitable by virtue of the resource richness of its Andean neighbors. Geologists who have questioned Ecuador's mineral content, on the other hand, have emphasized Andean heterogeneity. In the recent promotion of Ecuador's resource potential, notions of Andean uniformity have been bolstered by models of subsoil copper that emerged in the in 1970s in the context of plate-tectonic theory. In highlighting the linkage between ideas of Andean nature and appraisals of Ecuadorian resource potential since the late 19 th century, I outline the dialectics between nature and natural resources that underpin processes of resource becoming.

Placing resources: Junior mining companies and the locus of mineral potential

“…5). In this way, SolGold draws on enduring narratives of Andean resource wealth and uniformity -the notion that the Andes are essentially same across South America -to help naturalize a connection between Ecuadorian and Chilean subsoil domains (Kneas, 2018).…”

Emergence and Aftermath: The (Un)Becoming of Resources and Identities in Northwestern Ecuador

“…Interest in resource materiality has likewise engendered questions of resource becoming-the cultural, political, and scientific means through which resources are imagined, abstracted, and brought into being as natural objects (Huber 2018;Kneas 2017Kneas , 2018Richardson and Weszkalnys 2014). Resource becoming helps challenge what Laura Nader (2004) termed the -inevitability syndrome‖-the assumption that subsoil resources are naturally there and destined for extraction (Chapman 2013;Hughes 2017).…”