Corporate and migrant investment in a gold-mining development corridor: The case of Suriname

Marjo de Theije focuses on the link between local development (in Suriname) and the Brazilian-driven business of gold-mining showing the multiple controversies in the meaning of ‘local’ development. The extraction of gold can take diverse shapes, from large scale mines operated by multinational companies, to junior corporations that focus on the exploration of mineral resources, to a variety of small scale and artisanal gold mining activities. In some cases, these different modalities of gold mining co-exist in complementarity, while in other contexts they clash and enter in long-lasting conflicts. In the gold mining literature, scholars have underscored the relationships between different organizational forms of extraction and how these are connected to the socio-political environment and the geology of deposits). In the 21st century, the rising price of gold has caused a massive expansion of mining and concomitant flows of workers and knowledge all over the globe. Large mining companies are present in different countries, and their skilled labor force travels between the operations. Small scale gold mining brings many more miners on the move, typically of unskilled workers who live in poverty and have few other opportunities to improve their economic situation. This flow of labor has significant translocal economic, social and environmental effects.