Strategies, Frontiers, and Mining: Mining Sector Operations in the Border Strip of Brazil’s Legal Amazon

The expansion of frontiers into new lands and resources constitutes an inherent demand of the capitalist model, necessary to sustain its vigorous reproduction. This article analyzes how the political-administrative boundary of the Border Strip in Brazil has operated as a mineral frontier. It seeks to identify, systematize, and categorize the strategies employed by actors in the mining sector to gain access to mineral resources in a portion of the Legal Amazon previously restricted by state regulations. The methodological approach involved the collection and analysis of spatial data from Brazilian government agencies and research institutions regarding corporate appropriation of the subsoil. Five main types of strategies were identified—securing exploration rights, speculative, political-institutional, outsourcing, and garimpo (artisanal mining)—which reflect the practices through which the mining frontier is opened and appropriated