Cleaning mineral supply chains? Political economies of exploitation and hidden costs of technical fixes

This article examines hidden costs of three prominent mineral supply chain ‘solutions’ that respectively aim to create ‘conflict-free’ minerals, curtail corruption, and reduce mercury pollution. Our analysis underscores the heterogeneous ways in which global capitalism shapes regulatory injustices spanning multiple scales, illustrating how ‘clean’ schemes can hide inequitable territorial economic regimes accumulation labour exploitation resulting social harms for artisanal small-scale mining communities, negative environmental impacts, reproduction extractive political economies dominated by large corporations. We argue increased critical attention narrowly circumscribe spaces pursuing counter-hegemonic ‘transformation’.