Muddy Decisions: Gold in the Chocó, Colombia. Issue 4 (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tubb, Daniel
• Is Part Of: Extractive industries and society. Volume 2:Issue 4(2015)
• Page Start: 722
• Page End: 733
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Colombia -- Chocó -- Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold mining -- Afro-descendant communities; Mineral industries -- Periodicals; Gas industry -- Periodicals; Petroleum industry and trade -- Periodicals; 338.205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.exis.2015.08.008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-790X

Abstract

Highlights: Why do Afro-descendant miners in Colombia's northwest Chocó department, who used hand tools and techniques, often invite outsiders, who used heavy machinery and mercury, to work their mines? Reasons include: familial pressure over land, profit sharing, high prices, access to gold, and dangerous working conditions. Abstract: As gold prices rose between 2002 and 2012, Afro-descendant gold miners confronted illegal outsider-owned gold mines on their land in Colombia's northwest Chocó department. This article examines why these Afro-descendant miners, who used hand tools and techniques, often invited the outsiders, who used heavy machinery and mercury, to work their mines. Their reasons included: familial pressure over land, profit sharing, high prices, access to gold, and dangerous working conditions. The decision to invite in the outsiders complicates the conventional narrative of a coercive relationship between outsiders and Afro-descendant communities, even as the relationship produced worse than expected outcomes for both sides.