Towards a negotiated solution to conflicts between large-scale and small-scale miners? The Acupan contract mining project in the Philippines

Recent decades have witnessed a simultaneous expansion of large-scale mining and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). In an increasing number of instances, ASM-operators and mining companies are competing or even clashing over access to mineral deposits. A growing number of experts are now proposing negotiated solutions, which attempt to accommodate the interests of large-scale mining as well as ASM-operators. Building on a critical case study of the Acupan Contract Mining Project (ACMP) in the Philippines, it is argued that this type of negotiated settlement may reflect and even reinforce historically rooted inequalities, not just between ASM and large-scale mining, but also within the ASM-sector. While the company and a small group of ASM-interests are benefiting from the ACMP, the informal ASM-workforce is subjected to an exploitative labor regime. By engaging selectively with local elites, initiatives like the ACMP risk replicating some of the critical shortcomings of other mineral reform initiatives. To prevent this from happening, attempts to devise negotiated arrangements between ASM and large-scale mining need to be complemented with efforts to understand and redress power imbalances within the ASM-sector.