Mechanised Pits and Artisanal Tunnels: The Incongruences and Complementarities of Mining Investment in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract

Conflict has become a central concept to understanding the recent expansion of mining across the Andes. Yet, while contestation can emerge and has done so, the continued extraction of minerals requires scholars to attend to how mining projects maintain viability. This article moves beyond analyses of conflict to elucidate the role of compromise in achieving temporary states of homeostasis. Using ethnographic data collected at the Las Bambas copper mine in the highlands of southern Peru, I explore the agential navigation of communities affected by mining and the projects they develop in pursuit of ‘a better life’. The article elucidates the challenges that industrial production presents for professional employment, the limitations of boomtown hustling (informal economic activity) for aspiring individuals, and the rise of artisanal mining as a project of social mobility. Ultimately, the acceptance of such ‘illegal’ mining by corporate proprietors demonstrates the complementary nature that informal and formal extraction play in allaying the momentum of conflict.

Global ideals and restorative extraction: Negotiated Indigeneity on the margins of a Peruvian copper mine

“…Employment, education, electricity, and possibility existed elsewhere. Perhaps even more significantly, many of the individuals I spoke with expounded on their own personal “search for the better life”—a social project that, more often than not, entailed migrating to the expanding cities of Lima, Cusco, Abancay, and Arequipa in the hopes of finding opportunities that Cotabambas evidently lacked (Gilfoy 2022b). Selestino himself, I would discover, left the province as a young man with his brother, wishing for a future beyond subsistent agriculture.…”

“…A great return migration occurred throughout Cotabambas. Community demographics doubled and quadrupled as spatial understandings of development possibilities shifted in tune with the country's extractive boom (Gilfoy 2022b). Oscar, whom I had climbed Chucruni with, was but one of many who migrated to Cotabambas following the announcement of the mine.…”

“…Oscar worked for a contractor building a new urban suburb for the community of Fuerabamba 8 and participated in technical training provided by corporate officials. The employment boom resonated deeply for individuals such as Oscar who were underemployed for much of their lives and fostered ideas of professional futures when the Las Bambas pit began production (see Gilfoy 2022b). However, by 2015, when the mine was completed, the workforce of technical extraction shifted to trained graduates from the Peruvian coast—already embedded within extractive industries—leaving communities on the margins of an arising enclave, beyond the needs of mining capitalism (Appel 2012).…”

“…Interestingly, the phenomena of artisanal projects were not entirely new (see Gilfoy 2022b). Since the mineral exploration boom in Peru, communities in Apurímac had become increasingly aware of the natural riquezas (riches) buried beneath their fields as well as the feverish global demand for them.…”