Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the School of Advanced Study

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Mining revenues and their management

Dr. Carlos Monge, Revenue Watch Institute

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Bolivian initiatives to encourage in-country processing of domestically mined minerals

José Pimentel, COMIBOL

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Q&A Session

Chair: Eric Joyce MP, All Party Parliamentary Group on Extractive Industries

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

The Quellaveco Project in Peru and Anglo American’s approach

Hugh Elliott, Anglo American

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Protecting human rights in relation to extractive industry projects

Dr. Carlos Monge

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Accessing and using water resources for mineral extraction: issues and challenges

Dr. Jessica Budds, University of East Anglia

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Lithium in Bolivia: from extraction to national industrialization

José Pimentel

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Minimising the detrimental impacts: Q&A

Chair: Dr. Emma Wilson (IIED)

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Ensuring local development at the end of a project’s life-cycle

Caroline Digby, Post-Mining Alliance

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Keeping the long term in sight: institutional challenges of the transition

Rosemary Thorp, Oxford University

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.