ABSTRACT
Mineral extraction challenges dryland farming and pastoral communities and impacts socioeconomic opportunities, health, and environmental productivity. Mining in the global South seldom recognizes customary land and resource rights and disrupts pastoral transhumance patterns, with significant implications for residents and communities. This chapter illustrates the implications of mining through dryland case studies in the Sahel region (uranium in Niger, gold in Mali) and in arid Mongolia. State involvement enables operations with discourse promising development, which in turn contributes to a positive framing of mining in drylands. Resulting economic dependency and environmental degradation are externalized, borne by local people and their livestock. This chapter explores the ongoing strategies of transnational mining companies operating in dryland areas, their collaboration with state actors, and the impact on development discourse. The chapter concludes with perspectives on local engagement with mining developments across arid regions.
