Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:58:26.598Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

18 - Mining and Colonialism in the Circumpolar North

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2023

Adrian Howkins
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Peder Roberts
Affiliation:
University of Stavanger
Get access

Summary

Writing in 1916, shortly after his appointment as ‘Geologist in Charge of Explorations’, the celebrated Canadian geologist and explorer Charles Camsell reflected on the prospects for development in Canada’s ‘unexplored’ Arctic: ‘It is to the mining industry more than any other that we must look for co-operation and assistance in the exploration of our northern regions.’1 Camsell hailed the prospects for mining to launch the transformation of remote, sparsely populated Arctic and Northern regions into prosperous, modern Euro-Canadian settlement frontiers. Nearly forty years later, reflecting on his geological career and the surge in mineral development activity in Canada’s north in the decades around World War II, Camsell confidently concluded, ‘To my mind the whole future of the North country depends primarily upon its mineral wealth.’2 Camsell’s visions of mining’s capacity for transforming the Arctic both echoes and anticipates the ideology of ‘frontierism’ characteristic of industry boosters and state agencies around the circumpolar Arctic.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, Astrid, Jensen, Lars, and Hvenegård-Lassen, Kirsten, “Qullissat: Historicising and Localising the Danish Scramble for the Arctic”, in Huggan, Graham, ed., Postcolonial Perspectives on the European High North (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 93116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angell, Elisabeth, Nygaard, Vigdis, and Selle, Per, “Industrial Development in the North: Sámi Interests Squeezed between Globalization and Tradition”, Acta Borealia (published online 22 April 2020), https://doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2020.1751995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arlov, Thor Bjørn, and Hoel, Alf Håkon, “Kulldrift i Kald Krig”, in Jølle, Harald Dag and Drivenes, Einar-Arne, eds., Norsk Polarhistorie: Rikedomenne (Oslo: Gyldendal, 2004), pp. 389441.Google Scholar
Gert, Asmund, and Johansen, Poul, “Short and Long Term Environmental Effects of Marine Tailings and Waste Rock Disposal from a Lead/Zinc Mine in Greenland”, in Water & Environment: International Congress 13–17 September (Seville: IMWA 1999), pp. 177181.Google Scholar
Avango, Dag, “Remains of Industry in the Polar Regions: Histories, Processes, Heritage”, Entreprises et Histoire 87 (2017): 133149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avango, Dag, and Roberts, Peder, “Heritage, Conservation, and Geopolitics of Svalbard: Writing the History of Arctic Environments”, in Körber, L.-A., MacKenzie, S., and Westerståhl Stenport, A., eds., Arctic Environmental Modernities: From the Age of Polar Exploration to the Era of the Anthropocene (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 125142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avango, Dag, Louwrens Hacquebord, Ypie Aalders, et al., “Between Markets and Geo-politics: Natural Resource Exploitation on Spitsbergen from 1600 to the Present Day”, Polar Record 47 (2010): 2939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avango, Dag, Jann Kunnas, Maria Pettersson, et al., “Constructing Fennoscandia as a Mining Region”, in Carina, E. and Keskitalo, H., eds., The Politics of Arctic Resources: Change and Continuity in the ‘Old North’ of Northern Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 6277.Google Scholar
Avango, Dag, Hacquebord, Louwrens, and Urban, Wråkberg, “Industrial Extraction of Arctic Natural Resources since the Sixteenth Century: Technoscience and Geo-economics in the History of Northern Whaling and Mining”, Journal of Historical Geography, 44 (2014): 1530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelsson, Per, Sköld, Peter, and Röver, Corinna, “Ethnic Identity and Resource Rights in Sweden”, in Carina, E. and Keskitalo, H., eds., The Politics of Arctic Resources: Change and Continuity in the ‘Old North’ of Northern Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 119139.Google Scholar
Berry, Dawn A., “Cryolite, the Canadian Aluminium Industry and the American Occupation of Greenland during the Second World War”, Polar Journal 2 (2012): 219235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bielawski, Ellen, Rogue Diamonds: Northern Riches on Dene Land (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004).Google Scholar
Bjørklund, Ivar, “Industrial Impacts and Indigenous Representation: Some Fallacies in the Sámi Quest for Autonomy”, Études/Inuit/Studies 37 (2013): 145160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boutet, J.-S., Keeling, A., and Sandlos, J., “Historical Perspectives on Mining and the Aboriginal Social Economy”, in Southcott, Chris, ed., Northern Communities Working Together: The Social Economy of Canada’s North (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), pp. 198227.Google Scholar
Bowes-Lyon, Léa-Marie, Richards, Jeremy P., and McGee, Tara M., “Socio-economic Impacts of the Nanisivik and Polaris Mines, Nunavut, Canada”, in Richards, J. P., ed., Mining, Society, and a Sustainable World (Berlin: Springer, 2009), pp. 371396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, Rognvald, Bjerkgård, Terje, Nordahl, Bobo, and Schiellerup, Henrik, Mineral Resources in the Arctic: An Introduction (Geological Survey of Norway, 2016). www.ngu.no/upload/Aktuelt/CircumArtic/Mineral_Resources_Arctic_Mainbook.pdfGoogle Scholar
Brake, Jamie, “R is for Ramah Chert”, in Encyclopedia of Labrador, www.mun.ca/labradorinstitute/archives/RisforRamahChert.php (accessed 8 June 2020).Google Scholar
Bruno, Andy, The Nature of Soviet Power: An Arctic Environmental History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Cameron, Emilie, Far Off Metal River: Inuit Lands, Settler Stories, and the Making of the Contemporary Arctic (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Camsell, Charles, Son of the North (Toronto: Ryerson, 1954).Google Scholar
Camsell, Charles, “The Unexplored Areas of Continental Canada”, Geographical Journal 48 (1916): 249257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, Jeanette, Cater, Tara, and Keeling, Arn, “Mining and Communities”, in Bell, T. and Brown, T. M., eds., From Science to Policy in the Eastern Canadian Artic: An Integrated Regional Impact Study (IRIS) of Climate Change and Modernization (Quebec City: ArcticNet, 2018), pp. 495507.Google Scholar
Carson, Dean, Solbär, Lovisa, and Olof, Stjernström, “Hot Spots and Spaces In-between: Development and Settlement in the ‘Old North’”, in Carina, E. and Keskitalo, H., eds., The Politics of Arctic Resources: Change and Continuity in the ‘Old North’ of Northern Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 1837.Google Scholar
Coates, Ken, and Morrison, William, Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Cole, Terrence, “Golden Years: The Decline of Gold Mining in Alaska”, Pacific Northwest Quarterly 80 (1989): 6271.Google Scholar
Cronon, William, “Kennecott Journey: The Paths out of Town”, in Cronon, William and Gitlin, Jay, eds., Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America’s Western Past (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), pp. 2851.Google Scholar
Dahl, Jens, Minedrift i et fangersamfund (Vedbæk: Kragestedet, 1976).Google Scholar
Dahl, Jens, and Lyberth, Karl Johan, Grønlandske Migrantarbejdere i Marmorilik 1973–1978 (Copenhagen: Institut for Eskimologi, Københavns Universitet, 1980).Google Scholar
Dale, Brigt, Bay-Larsen, Ingrid, and Skorstad, Berit, “The Will to Drill: Revisiting Arctic Communities”, in Dale, Brigt, Bay-Larsen, Ingrid, and Skorstad, Berit, The Will to Drill: Mining in Arctic Communities (Cham: Springer International, 2018), pp. 213228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dance, Anne, “Northern Reclamation in Canada: Contemporary Policy and Practice for New and Legacy Mines”, Northern Review 41 (2015): 4180.Google Scholar
Demuth, Bathsheba, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019).Google Scholar
Demuth, Bathsheba, “Grounding Capitalism: Geology, Labor, and the Nome Gold Rush”, in Mountford, B. and Tuffnell, S., eds., A Global History of Gold Rushes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018), pp. 252272.Google Scholar
Eklund, Niklas, Julia Lajus, Vassily Borovoy, et al., “Imageries and Historical Change in the European Arctic”, in Carina, E. Keskitalo, H., ed., The Politics of Arctic Resources: Change and Continuity in the ‘Old North’ of Northern Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 200220.Google Scholar
Emmerson, Charles, The Future History of the Arctic (New York: PublicAffairs, 2010).Google Scholar
Frandsen, Niels, “Grafitminen ved Upernavik: Et forsøg på minedrift 1845-51”, Grønland, 60 (2012): 286295.Google Scholar
Franklin, U. M., Badone, E., Gotthardt, R., Willard, B., and Yorga, D., Examination of Prehistoric Copper Technology and Copper Sources in Western Arctic and Subarctic North America (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederiksen, Anders, and Kadenic, Maja Due, “Mining in Arctic and Non-Arctic Regions: A Socioeconomic Assessment”, ZA Discussion Papers, No. 9883 (Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2016), http://ftp.iza.org/dp9883.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, Robert B., “Sustainability Assessment and Conflict Resolution: Reaching Agreement to Proceed with the Voisey’s Bay Nickel Mine”, Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006): 334348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafsson, H. E., T. Lundgren, M. Lindvall, et al., “The Swedish Acid Mine Drainage Experience: Research, Development, and Practice”, in Azcue, J. M., ed., Environmental Impacts of Mining Activities: Emphasis on Mitigation and Remedial Measure (Berlin: Springer, 1999), pp. 203228.Google Scholar
Haagen, Birte, “The Coal Mine at Qullissat in Greenland”, Études/Inuit/Studies 6 (1982): 7597.Google Scholar
Hacquebord, Louwrens, and Avango, Dag, “Settlements in an Arctic Resource Frontier Region”, Arctic Anthropology 46 (2009): 2539.Google Scholar
Haley, Sharman, Matthew Klick, Nick Szymoniak, and Andrew Crow, “Observing Trends and Assessing Data for Arctic Mining”, Polar Geography 34 (2011): 3761.Google Scholar
Hawley, Charles C., A Kennecott Story: Three Mines, Four Men, and One Hundred Years, 1887–1997 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014).Google Scholar
Haycox, Stephen, Alaska: An American Colony (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002)Google Scholar
Hogarth, D. D., Boreham, P. W., and Mitchell, J. G., Martin Frobisher’s Northwest Venture, 1576–1581: Mines, Minerals and Metallurgy (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Huskey, Lee, and Southcott, Chris, “‘That’s Where My Money Goes’: Resource Production and Financial Flows in the Yukon Economy”, Polar Journal 6 (2016): 1129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josephson, Paul, “Industrial Deserts: Industry, Science and the Destruction of Nature in the Soviet Union”, Slavonic and East European Review 85 (2007): 294321.Google Scholar
Josephson, Paul, Resources Under Regimes: Technology, Environment, and the State, New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).Google Scholar
Josephson, Paul, “Technology and the Conquest of the Soviet Arctic”, Russian Review 70 (2011): 419439.Google Scholar
Josephson, Paul, et al., An Environmental History of Russia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Keeling, Arn, and Boulter, Patricia, “From Igloo to Mine Shaft: Inuit Labour and Memory at the Rankin Inlet Nickel Mine”, in Keeling, A. and Sandlos, J., eds., Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015), pp. 3558.Google Scholar
Keeling, Arn, and Sandlos, John, “Environmental Justice Goes Underground? Historical Notes from Canada’s Northern Mining Frontier”, Environmental Justice 2 (2009): 117125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keeling, Arn, and Sandlos, John, eds., Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015).Google Scholar
King, Robert E., “Alaska Natives in the Gold Rush: A Look at Valdez Creek in the Early to Mid-20th Century”, in Spude, C. H., Mills, R. O., Gurcke, K., and Sprague, R., eds., Eldorado! The Archaeology of Gold Mining in the Far North (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), pp. 274287.Google Scholar
Kragh, Helge, “From Curiosity to Industry: The Early History of Cryolite Soda Manufacture”. Annals of Science 52 (1995): 285301.Google Scholar
Kruse, Frigga, “Historical Perspectives: The European Commercial Exploitation of Arctic Mineral Resources after 1500 ad”, Polarforschung 86 (2016): 1526.Google Scholar
Kvist, Roger, “The Racist Legacy in Modern Swedish Saami Policy”, Canadian Journal of Native Studies/Le Revue Canadienne des Etudes Autochtones 14 (1994): 203220.Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene, “The Three Waves of Arctic Urbanisation: Drivers, Evolutions, Prospects”, Polar Record 55 (2019): 112.Google Scholar
Lindmark, Daniel, “The Colonial Encounter in Early Modern Sápmi”, in Naum, Magdalena and Nordin, Jonas M., eds., Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena (New York: Springer, 2013), pp. 131146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeffler, Bob, “Mining and Communities”, Economic Development Journal 14 (2015): 2331.Google Scholar
Lowe, Mick, Premature Bonanza: Standoff at Voisey’s Bay (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1998).Google Scholar
Luckow, Ulrik, and Fisker, Jørgen, Arsukfjorden (Nuuk: Nordiske Landes Forlag, 1977).Google Scholar
McGhee, Robert, Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan Adventure (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001).Google Scholar
McLean, Ron, and Hensley, Willie, Mining and Indigenous Peoples: The Red Dog Story (Ottawa: International Council on Metals and the Environment, 1994).Google Scholar
Mehler, Natasha, “The Sulphur Trade of Iceland from the Viking Age to the End of the Hanseatic Period”, in Baug, Irene et al., eds., Nordic Middle Ages: Artefacts, Landscapes and Society. Essays in Honour of Ingvild Øye on her 70th Birthday (Bergen: University of Bergen, 2015), pp. 193212.Google Scholar
Midgley, Scott, “Contesting Closure: Science, Politics, and Community Responses to Closing the Nanisivik Mine, Nunavut”, in Keeling, A. and Sandlos, J., eds., Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015), pp. 293314.Google Scholar
Mörkenstam, Ulf, “Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Self-determination: The Case of the Swedish Sami People”, Canadian Journal of Native Studies/Le Revue Canadienne des Etudes Autochtones 25 (2005): 433461.Google Scholar
Nagel, Anne-Hilde, “Norwegian Mining in the Early Modern Period”, GeoJournal 32 (2020): 137149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naum, Magdalen, “Cultural ‘Improvement’, Discipline and Mining in Early Modern Sápmi”, Post-Medieval Archaeology 52 (2018): 102116.Google Scholar
Naum, Magdalen, “The Pursuit of Metals and the Ideology of Improvement in Early Modern Sápmi, Sweden”, Journal of Social History 51 (2018): 784807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, Henry, and Knudsen, Henrik, “Too Hot to Handle: The Controversial Hunt for Uranium in Greenland in the Early Cold War”, Centaurus 55 (2013): 321343.Google Scholar
Nilsen, Thomas, “Norilsk Tops World’s List of Worst SO2 Polluters”, The Barents Observer (21 August 2019), https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/2019/08/norilsk-tops-worlds-list-worst-so2-polluters.Google Scholar
Norlander, David J., “Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s”, Slavic Review 57 (2008): 791812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nuttall, Mark, Climate, Society and Subsurface Politics in Greenland (London: Routledge, 2017).Google Scholar
Nygaard, Vigdis, “Do Indigenous Interests Have a Say in Planning of New Mining Projects? Experiences from Finnmark, Norway”, The Extractive Industries and Society 3 (2016): 1724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyström, Markus, “Invisible Histories and Stories of Progress: Discourses and Narratives in Decision-Making Institutions in Mining Affairs in Sweden”, MA diss. (Uppsala University, 2015), www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:893936/FULLTEXT01.pdf.Google Scholar
Ojala, Carl-Gösta, and Nordin, Jonas M., “Mining Sápmi: Colonial Histories, Sámi Archaeology, and the Exploitation of Natural Resources in Northern Sweden”, Arctic Anthropology 52 (2015): 621.Google Scholar
Paci, Chris, and Villebrun, Noeline, “Mining Denendeh: A Dene Nation Perspective on Community Health Impacts of Mining”, Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 3 (2005): 7186.Google Scholar
Pearce, T. D., Ford, J. D., Prno, J., et al., “Climate Change and Mining in Canada”, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 16 (2011): 347368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persson, Sofia, Harnesk, David, and Islar, Mine, “What Local People? Examining the Gállok Mining Conflict and the Rights of the Sámi Population in Terms of Justice and Power”, Geoforum 86 (2017): 2029.Google Scholar
Petersen, H. C., “Kryoliten i Ivittuut”, Atuagagdliutit – AG (4 May 1995): 10.Google Scholar
Piper, Liza, The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Pratt, K. L., “Copper, Trade, and Tradition Among the Lower Ahtna of the Chitina River Basin: The Nicolai Era, 1884–1900”, Arctic Anthropology 35 (1998): 7798.Google Scholar
Priebe, Janina, “A Modern Mine? Greenlandic Media Coverage on the Mining Community of Qullissat, Western Greenland, 1942–1968”, Polar Journal 8 (2018): 141162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranestad, Kristin, Knowledge-Based Growth in Natural Resource Intensive Economies: Mining, Knowledge Development and Innovation in Norway 1860–1940 (Cham: Palgrave, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhéaume, Gilles, and Caron-Vuotari, Margaret, “The Future of Mining in Canada’s North”, Conference Board of Canada Report (Ottawa, January 2013).Google Scholar
Rodon, Thierry, Lévesque, Francis, and Blais, Jonathan, “De Rankin Inlet à Raglan, Le Développement Minier et Les Communautés Inuit”, Études/Inuit/Studies 37 (2013): 103122.Google Scholar
Rud, Søren, “Governance and Tradition in Nineteenth Century Greenland”, Interventions 16 (2014): 551571.Google Scholar
Sejersen, Frank, Efterforskning og udnyttelse af råstoffer i Grønland i historisk Perspektiv (Copenhagen: Københavns Universitet, 2014).Google Scholar
Söderholm, Kristina, and Viklund, Roine, “Policy and Business Efforts for the Reduced Impact of Mining on Nature When Historical Studies Have Something to Offer Policy Makers”, Technology and Culture 60 (2019): 192218.Google Scholar
Sørensen, Søren Peder, Qullissat: Byen der ikke vil dø (Frederiksberg: Frydenlund, 2013).Google Scholar
Sörlin, Sverker, “State and Resources in the North: From Territorial Assertion to the ‘Smorgasbord State’”, in Carina, E. and Keskitalo, H., eds., The Politics of Arctic Resources: Change and Continuity in the ‘Old North’ of Northern Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 3861.Google Scholar
Southcott, Chris, Abele, Frances, Natcher, David, and Parlee, Brenda, eds., Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic (London: Routledge, 2018).Google Scholar
Spengler, Tim, “Overview of Mining in Alaska”, Alaska Legislature Legislative Research Report 13.156 (January 2013).Google Scholar
Spude, Robert L., “An Overview History of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rushes, 1880–1918”, in Spude, C. H., Mills, R. O., Gurcke, K., and Sprague, R., eds., Eldorado! The Archaeology of Gold Mining in the Far North (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), pp. 274–287.Google Scholar
Stadius, Peter, “Petsamo: Bringing Modernity to Finland’s Arctic Ocean Shore 1920–1939”, Acta Borealia 33 (2016): 140165.Google Scholar
Storm, Anna, Post-Industrial Landscape Scars (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).Google Scholar
Sveistrup, P. P., “Ivigtut 1865–1870”, Tidsskriftet for Grønland 2 (1965): 41–80.Google Scholar
Topp, Niels-Henrik, Kryolitindustriens Historie 1847–1990 (Copenhagen: Kryolitselskabet Øresund, 1990).Google Scholar
Vikström, Hanna, and Högselius, Per, “From Cryolite to Critical Metals: The Scramble for Greenland’s Minerals”, in Thomsen, Robert C. and Bjørst, Lill Rastad, eds., Heritage and Change in the Arctic: Resources for the Present, and the Future (Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2017), pp. 177211.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×