Mining History: Mobilizing The Past In Struggles Over Mineral Extraction In Peru^*

* I am grateful to the residents of Condorjalca, Chacrapampa, and other communities in the study area for sharing their thoughts and experiences; to Mike Dougherty, Tomas Frederiksen, Arn Keeling, Aman Luthra, Reecia Orzeck, and Clayton Rosati for providing helpful commentary on earlier drafts; to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on how to improve the manuscript; and to Syracuse University, Illinois State University, and the United States Department of Education for providing funding to support this research.

Abstract

This paper examines how the past is constructed and mobilized within contemporary Peruvian mining politics. Beginning with an exploration of tensions existing within the mining industry's relationship to its history, I analyze how mining proponents have sought to both naturalize today's mining expansion by locating it within a national history of extraction, while also working to break free from certain negative aspects of the industry's past. The paper then examines how the past is remembered and invoked within the context of on‐the‐ground struggles at a large‐scale gold mine in the region of Ancash. I address the contradictory ways in which local history is constructed in these struggles and document how memories of past experiences with mining inform how area residents understand and critique the “new” mining economy. This paper underscores the need to understand the complicated, selective, and often‐contradictory ways in which the past is made present in extractive industry conflicts.

• mining
• Peru
• political ecology
• resource politics

Notes

1. Spanish‐to‐English translations of texts and interview quotations are by the author.

2. In 2007, for instance, Peruvian mining exports totaled $17.2 billion, which represented 61.8 percent of the country's total exports, and the mining industry contributed 49 percent of all revenue received by the Peruvian treasury (MINEM 2011; SNMPE 2011).

3. My analysis of how the país minero discourse aligns the specific interests of the mining industry with the general interests of the Peruvian public exhibits certain similarities to research on the city as “growth machine” in urban political economy, especially regarding this research's investigations into how local elites work together to ensure that their pro‐growth visions define the urban development agenda (see, inter alia, Molotch 1976; Logan and Molotch 1987).

4. Peru's MINEM has begun to keep a catalog of environmental liabilities caused by past mining operations. The ministry reports the existence of nearly 7,000 of these pasivos mineros in Peru, classifying 10 percent of them as high risk (RPP Noticias 2012b).

5. All names of individuals and communities used in this paper are pseudonyms.

6. Pierina's area of influence is made up of eighteen communities. The firm considers eleven of these—in general the ones closest to mine installations—to be within its “direct” area of influence, and the others within its “indirect” area of influence. A variety of settlement types exist within the area, including villages (caseríos), towns (centros poblados menores), and peasant communities (comunidades campesinas). While each of these exhibits its own characteristics, for the sake of simplicity I refer to them all in this paper as “communities.”

7. Here Jorge underscored that Barrick had worked with local governments to bring electrical service to all eleven communities in Pierina's direct area of influence—something that the state had never done on its own.

8. As Antonia preferred to respond to my questions in Quechua, her first language, I conducted this interview with the aid of a translator.

9. While Carmen did not expand on what these disputes entailed, time spent in Pierina's area‐of‐influence communities revealed that intracommunity struggles not infrequently revolved around how communities organized and carried out their involvement in Barrick's CSR initiatives.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Himley

Dr. Himley is an assistant professor in the department of geography-geology at Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois 61790-4400; [[email protected]].