Uneven Ores: Gold Mining Materialities and Classes of Labor in Indonesia

Behind farming, small-scale mining is one of the most important sources of rural livelihoods in the Global South. A significant body of research has detailed the interlinkages between these activities. More recently, scholars have used the tools of agrarian change to interpret small-scale mining livelihood dynamics. I build on this trend by introducing an emphasis on the materiality of mining. As with small farmers, small-scale miners’ livelihoods depend directly on the land—its material qualities are a prime factor in their choices, successes, and failures. Extending this comparison, I consider how the nature of gold ore shapes small-scale mining labor practices, dynamics, and outcomes. To do so, I examine small-scale gold mining in the Pongkor region of West Java, Indonesia. In Pongkor, an array of people with diverse social positionings participate in mining using different techniques and at different scales. I connect this diversity to the variable characteristics of the ore they mine, including the quality of the ore, the depth where it is found, and the methods required to process its various forms. I argue that these multiple materialities have made small-scale mining both a flexible and an unequal livelihood. The particularities of gold's occurrence enable it to support many people, but simultaneously structure inequalities into small-scale gold production. The interplay of these material conditions and broader political-economic dynamics has ultimately resulted in the differentiation of various “classes of labor.” Like farming, small-scale mining is thus experienced, and incorporated into broader commodity exchange, unevenly.