Canadian mining in Latin America (1990 to present): a provisional history

Abstract

Since the early 1990s Canadian mining companies extended their presence in Latin America in unprecedented numbers and ways. This article presents a historical synthesis of this phenomenon. It shows Canadian overseas mining as predominantly focused on exploration and precious metal mining; traces its origins in the nexus between new techniques and hubs of speculative capital; and shows the political innovations produced by this commodity frontier, both in the deployment of new forms of corporate governmentality and in the emergence of locally-based movements for resource sovereignty and socio-ecological justice.

Desde los años noventa las empresas mineras canadienses se han desplegados a través de la America Latina en números y maneras sin precedente. Este articulo se quiere una síntesis histórica de este fenómeno. Demuestra la concentración del sector transnacional de la minería canadiense sobre la exploración y la extracción de metales preciosos; identifica sus orígenes en el nexo entre nuevas técnicas y centros de especulación capitalista; y describe las innovaciones políticas que surgieron dentro de esta frontera de comodidades, tanto en el desplegué de nuevas formas de gobernabilidad corporativa y en la emergencia de movimientos para la soberanía local sobre los recursos y la justicia socio-ambiental.

Keywords:

• mining corporations
• Canada Latin America
• extractivism
• neoliberalism
• CSR
• socio-ecological movements
• history

Acknowledgements

Deep thanks to the many McGill undergraduate students who have given their time and energy to the McGill Research Collective on Canadian Mining in Latin America (MICLA). Their collective work over the years has built the foundations on which this article is based. Thanks also to the external reader’s particularly conscientious and thorough review.

Notes

1. MICLA, “Canadian Mining Projects in Latin America – Database”. This database was finished in late 2012. It compiles information on 1,246 Canadian mining projects of an estimated 1,500 projects listed on the TSX at the time.

2. In 2014 China produced an estimated 450 tons of gold. The next largest producers in the world were Australia (270 tons) and Russia (245 tons).

3. MICLA, “Canadian Mining Projects in Latin America – Database”, Number of observations, 593.

4. For Ecuador, Moore (2009); for Mexico, Enciso (2011); for Colombia, El Espectador (2011); for Peru, Cooperacción (2010); for Chile, Area Minera (2010).

5. Fuller listing of tailings dam failures see WISE Uranium site: http://www.wise-uranium.org/mdaf.html

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert

Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert is Associate Professor of Latin American History at McGill University. His research work focuses on the long-term cycles of political ecology of resource extraction in the continent, public interest research on Canadian mining in Latin America, and the use of historical research in advancing indigenous self-determination in western Panama.