Page 55 - Vol 28 Issue 29 2019

exploitation mining

How Powerful Mining Corporations

Flagrantly Plunder the Global

South without Consequence By Nate Singham

Copper for export

he process of corporate plunder These predatory practices carried out by capitalist industrialization, growing at an
in the global mining industry is MNCs deprive developing countries from astounding rate in the past 50 years. Global
Tseverely aggravating social and being able to benefit equitably from their extraction of primary materials more
economic inequalities across the planet. own natural resource supply and ultimately than tripled to 92 billion tonnes in 2017
“ The meek shall inherit the Earth, but undermine their pursuit of emancipatory from 27 billion tonnes in 1970, an annual
not its mineral rights.” —J. Paul Getty economic development policies. average growth of 2.6 percent , according
to a 2019 report conducted by the United
The big driver of the world economy How do systematic under development Nations Environment Programme-hosted
is a plundering process where and exploitation of developing countries International Resource Panel (IRP).
powerful corporations loot the natural and their peoples occur? Two common
resources of low-income countries. strategies of corporate plunder For many countries in the Global South,
through global extractive industries are extractive industries are an important
These highly influential multinational rent-seeking and wage exploitation. aspect of their economy; yet, in many
corporations (MNCs) facilitate the instances, low-income countries only
expatriation of profits and natural Extractive Industries retain a small fraction of the total wealth
assets from resource-rich but capital- Extractive industries are the starting point that is generated from their domestic
poor countries by engaging in a wide of the main drivers in the global economy. natural resource production.
range of morally egregious profit They deal with the development,
maximization practices, such as: extraction, and sale of exhaustible The highly capital-intensive nature of the
Intentionally establishing operations in (nonrenewable) natural resources such as extractive industry requires expensive
countries where it is possible to exploit the mining of metals and minerals and the upfront costs as well as on going
low-wage workers, Investing in locations extraction of oil and natural gas, according investment to replace, modernize, and
where it is possible to take advantage to the Encyclopedia of Environmental expand equipment and facilities, which
of regressive tax codes and ensuring Change, edited by John A. Matthews. forces communities and governments of
business-friendly production-sharing Global extraction of natural resources has poor countries to rely on foreign firms for
agreements with local governments. financial assistance.
increased with the onset of the process of

AFRICAN POWER Mining & Oil Review Vol 28, Issue 29, 2019 | 55