Mineral Intensive
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Dominant discourses assert that the energy transition will be mineral intensive and will therefore require more mining. This article reviews how scholars have analyzed the politics and socio-ecological consequences of the push for transition minerals through concepts such as green extractivism. It advances this literature by examining scholar and activist accounts from Indonesia, the world's largest producer of nickel. Counter to themes of North–South exploitation in the academic literature, Indonesian politicians frame the “downstreaming” of the country's nickel sector as a break from colonial patterns of raw material export. Local critics, however, refute this narrative by documenting concrete mechanisms—new configurations of state control, transnational capital, corruption, and socio-ecological harm—that produce deeply uneven outcomes within Indonesia. These insights underscore the need to examine subnational dynamics of transition mineral extraction while extending scholarship on how green extractivism operates through locally situated narratives, forms of coloniality, and processes of accumulation.
Source: Environment and Society
Author: Matthew Libassi
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7102424581