Publications

January 2002
Case

Noranda class="highlight">Inc.: class="highlight">Mining, class="highlight">Smelting, and class="highlight">Sustainability?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Noranda is a $7 billion international mining and smelting company headquartered in Canada. It has been cited for its fine environmental record. This case explores the issue of sustainability--in this case, for a mining company. Over time, and under nongovernmental... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Mining; Cost Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Environmental Sustainability; Mining Industry

2015
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mines; Industry Clusters; Entrepreneurship; City; Mining; Mining Industry; Pittsburgh

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Article

Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mines; Industry Clusters; Urban Development; Entrepreneurship; City; Mining; Mining Industry; United States

February 2012
Case

First class="highlight">Quantum class="highlight">Minerals class="highlight">vs. class="highlight">Eurasian class="highlight">Natural class="highlight">Resources

By: George Serafeim

The case describes the battle between First Quantum Mineral (FQM) and Eurasian Resources over mines in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After FQM's license to operate was revoked by the government of the DRC, Eurasian bought the rights over the mines that were... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Governance; Natural Environment; Risk and Uncertainty; Government and Politics; Mining Industry; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

September 2012
Case

Natural Gas

By: Rawi Abdelal and Sogomon Tarontsi

In an overview of natural gas as a fossil fuel and traded commodity, the case describes various regional markets of natural gas, highlighting diversity of price formation mechanisms across and within those markets. Recent changes in the economics of unconventional... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Strategy; Energy Sources; Mining Industry; Mining Industry

January 2014
Case

Anglo American: Implementing a 'Social Way' for Global Mining

By: Christopher Marquis, David Plumb, Tom Blathwayt and Zoe Yang

The mining giant Anglo American attempts to differentiate itself through its social performance, yet public expectations are still growing. Maintaining a "social license" to operate was increasingly challenging and critical to business success.

The case... View Details

Keywords: Global Mining; Localization; Socioeconomic Issues; Procurement; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management; Globalization; Reputation; Emerging Markets; Mining Industry; South Africa

August 2007
Case

Codelco Copper Mines

Codelco was a Chilean copper-mining company, widely considered to be one of the most professionally managed firms in South America in spite of the fact that it was 100% government-owned. A $10.5 billion company in 2005, Codelco faced the challenge of incorporating... View Details

Keywords: Mining; Geographic Location; Leading Change; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Mining Industry; Chile

2010
Case

Vander Mining Partners, IPADE

By: Roberto Charvel

In 2010 Vander Mining was trying to raise one of the few private equity funds specialized in mining. This was difficult among other things because institutional investors did not have a private equity team specialized in mining and emerging markets. View Details

Keywords: Real Assets; Business Startups; Business Plan; Economics; Metals and Minerals; Mining; Assets; Private Equity; Public Equity; Goods and Commodities; Emerging Markets; Market Participation; Mining Industry; Mining Industry; North and Central America

May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Harvard University and Urban Mining Industries: Decarbonizing the Supply Chain

By: Shirley Lu and Robert S. Kaplan

The case describes Harvard University’s consideration to decarbonize its supply chain by replacing cement with a low-carbon substitute called Pozzotive®. Developed and produced by Urban Mining Industries, Pozzotive® is a ground-glass material made with post-consumer... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Blockchain; Supply Chain; Green Technology; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability

October 1990 (Revised March 1998)
Case

De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (A)

Describes the problems facing De Beers at the start of 1983. De Beers had, since its formation in 1888, exercised a large measure of control over the world supply of diamonds. In 1983, the company itself mined over 40% of the world's natural diamonds and, through... View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Crisis Management; Business Strategy; Mining; Mining Industry

1978
Chapter

Comparative Mining Taxes

By: Louis T. Wells, Meyer Bucovetsky and Malcolm Gillis

Keywords: Mining; Taxation; Mining Industry

July 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Geopolitics of Deep-sea Mining

By: Jeremy Friedman and Jillian Noel

June 1988 (Revised December 1991)
Case

An Tai Bao Coal Mining Project

By: W. Carl Kester and Richard P. Melnick

An Tai Bao is the world's largest open-pit coal mine and is located in China's Shanxi province. After eight years of planning and negotiating, Occidental Petroleum, the foreign partner in the deal, is about to sign an ownership and financing agreement for $475 million... View Details

Keywords: Planning; Agreements and Arrangements; Non-Renewable Energy; Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Negotiation Deal; Joint Ventures; Mining Industry; China

November 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Rio Tinto and Mining in Mongolia: The Oyu Tolgoi Deposit

By: Eric Werker, Battushig Batbold, Kelsey Kennedy, Zanna McComish, Shaloo Savla and Nicole Shomair

In 2013, Rio Tinto was expected to begin commercial shipments from Oyu Tolgoi, a copper and gold mine in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Oyu Tolgoi was one of the last great unmined deposits in the world, and, once operations were in full swing, was expected to constitute... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Mining; Mining Industry; Mongolia

29 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

Keywords: by Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr; Manufacturing

29 Jan 2018
Book

How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster

example: the 2010 mine collapse in Chile that trapped 33 workers some 2,300 feet underground for 69 days. Here's Emondson's account.) The success of the now legendary mining rescue in Chile in 2010, while... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Mining

10 Feb 2014
HBS Case

Stressing Safety in South Africa’s Platinum Mines

than a meter. "The students wanted to get out right away," recalls Mukunda, an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. "But I said, no! (Luckily I have a loud voice.) And I told... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

November 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Case

The 2010 Chilean Mining Rescue (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Faaiza Rashid and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard

On August 5, 2010, 700,000 tons of some of the hardest rock in the world caved in Chile's century-old San José mine. The collapse buried 33 miners at a depth almost twice the height of the Empire State Building-over 600 meters (2000 feet) below ground. Never had a... View Details

Keywords: Mining; Chile