Digital-mineral entanglements framework (conceptual diagram)
DIGITAL-MINERAL ENTANGLEMENTS
Extractive regimes
Mining enclaves • energy systems
Transport/logistics corridors
Regulation & contracts
Digital infrastructures
Cloud regions • data centres
Submarine cables • platforms
AI systems
1) Material intensification
scaling computation, cloud connectivity, and electrification expands the material footprint of digital systems
rising demand for specific minerals, electricity, water/cooling, and logistics capacity
2) Digital intervention
remote sensing, geological/AI modelling, and data platforms mediate how extraction is located, monitored, and organised
traceability systems, audits, and platform-based compliance infrastructures redefine how “responsible” extraction is enforced
3) Infrastructural externalisation
standards, data systems, finance, and processing capacity are concentrated outside producing countries
power accumulates in external nodes that shape market access and value capture
Digitalisation is not separable from extraction
It operates within the same circuits of value capture and infrastructural power that structure African extractivism,
while simultaneously intensifying material demand and reconfiguring extraction through data and standards.
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