Mining shareholder value: Institutional shareholders, transnational corporations and the geography of gold mining

The ownership and activism of institutional investors in large publicly traded gold mining companies have re-oriented business strategies toward maximising value for shareholders. This paper examines these strategies in the context of the commodity boom (and bust) of 2003-2015. A study of the activities of some of the largest gold mining companies reveals a re-alignment of their operations to satisfy the yield requirements, investment motives, and risk tolerance of institutional investors. By prying open the black-box of corporate decision-making, the expansion and subsequent contraction of mining activities are shown to have in part been enabled and constrained by the investment appetite of a particular class of investors. The findings make the case for a more situated analysis of corporations, a key but understudied actor in political ecology studies.