Powering the Planetary Mine: Electrification, Automation, and the Political Ecology of “Smart” Extractivism

Keywords: extraction, mining, storage, automation, electrification, energy, political ecology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 4

Abstract

Reflecting on new technologies of extraction, Mazen Labban (2014: 563) theorizes the “planetary mine” as “transcend[ing] geological space-time and extend at the planetary scale, beyond traditional mining sites.” This “emergent geography of extraction,” according to Martín Arboleda (2020: 4), results in part from “a quantum leap in the robotization and computerization of the labor process brought about by…the fourth machine age.” This paper shifts attention from the automation of mining to the technologies of electrification and decarbonization (i.e., the shift from diesel-powered equipment to solar- and wind-powered semi-autonomous machines) that underlie it. Electrification, especially its reliance on large batteries for both the digitalization of mines and the automation of mining processes, raises important new questions about the spatial politics of the planetary mine, especially in relation to the political ecology of sourcing and storing “clean energy.”