Mining Hopes in Andalusian Wastelands: The Promises and Materiality of Greened Extraction

ABSTRACT: Drawing on discourses on "sustainable," "green" or "climate-smart" mining, public and private actors in the sector are justifying the (re)opening of metal mines in certain rural areas of Europe. Andalusia, a Southern region of Spain, is a pioneer territory in this regard. In this region, mining revival is framed as a paradoxical remedy to the current economic but also ecological crisis, despite the regional history of mining environmental disasters and deep social crisis caused by economic bubbles. How are the new mines made desirable in a context where the local economic, social, and environmental history could jeopardize these projects? The article explores mining revival in Andalusia, from urban centers to mining installations, approaching this process as a combination of promises and material practices. It analyzes the multiple expectations and activities supporting mining redeployment, both from above and from below. Ethnography helps to unpack the plurality of the social conditions that enable the materialization of extractive promises as industrial activities: beyond the top-down imposition of these activities, the article argues that it hinges on the local expectations of the people on the frontline of extraction. At the same time, these expectations are partly shaped by corporate and public policy. People's hopes can thus be thought of as being "mined": aspirations, desires, and anxieties are extracted from societies and processed through media discourses, political speeches, and corporate practices. However, just like ores can oppose physical resistance to extraction due to their biophysical characteristics, so too can local aspirations and hopes come into conflict with the reality of mining.