Junior mining firms in the globalising mining industry: The case of Australian junior miners in the Latin American copper and lithium industries

Junior miners from mature mining economies, such as Australia, have proliferated and internationalised extensively, establishing operations across the world. Despite juniors ubiquitousness and increasing importance in mineral pre-production stages, their processes and roles within the globalising mining industry and mineral-rich regions remain under-researched. This study addresses this gap through a series of papers that examine the establishment of Australian junior miner operations in the Latin American copper and lithium industries. This research shows that junior miners actively shape the geographies of the global mining industry and their operations help enable the emergence of new mining economic activities in mineral-rich regions.