Articulating “Responsible” Mining: The Political Work of Incorporating Colombian Artisanal Mining in Gold Supply Chains

Corporations and businesses handling minerals downstream have come under increased pressure to show that the minerals they handle are ‘responsibly’ mined, and a diversity of international standards have emerged to guarantee this. This has been particularly the case for minerals emerging from Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), a livelihood that has expanded in the last three decades, but that has come with many environmental and social challenges. Existing research has cast a critical eye on ‘responsible’ mining standards, showing in the case of gold, that they only manage to include a small number of the most well-off ASGM organisations (ASGMOs) because of high entry barriers. In this study we query how ASGMOs become incorporated in these standardising efforts through the case of two different voluntary standards collaborating with Colombian ASGMOs. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s work, we conceptualise these dynamics as articulations. This conceptualisation helps us show that the work of incorporating artisanal mining in ‘responsible’ gold supply chains is socially and political constructed through formalisation brokering and political positioning dynamics. We argue that querying these dynamics is key to understanding the conditions under which these supply chains are constructed and hold together, despite their drawbacks and low uptakes.