The understanding of public debates over mineral exploration and mining largely originates from exceptional situations such as mining accidents of conflicts. Less is known about how mining is portrayed and understood under more conventional settings. What storylines dominate the local day-to-day public debate? This article presents results from a comparative case study focusing on newspaper coverage of mineral exploration and mining in three European countries representing different geological and socio-economic contexts. Newspaper articles from the Geyer-Erzgebirge region in Germany, the Andalusia region in Spain, and Northern Finland are studied. The sample looks into the period between September 2018 and February 2020 and shows that regional newspapers report about mining issues relatively intensively even in the absence of major accidents or other media events causing peaks of attention. The tone of the articles is generally neutral to positive towards mining activities, reflecting the specific local settings, historical experiences, and future expectations. Despite the different contexts of the three countries, there were considerable similarities to the topics highlighted, including common themes of mining revival, mining events and social interaction, history of mining, and damages related to mining. Past, present, and future employment opportunities related directly or indirectly to the mining sector are key storylines. Another recurrent underlying theme is the need to balance environment and safety risks and socio-economic prosperity, typically covered through ordinary disputes among the mining sector, public authorities, regional non-governmental organizations, and local initiatives.

公众对矿产勘探和采矿辩论的理解主要源于冲突采矿事故等特殊情况。关于在更传统的环境下如何描述和理解采矿，人们知之甚少。哪些故事情节主导了当地的日常公共辩论？本文介绍了一个比较案例研究的结果，该研究侧重于代表不同地质和社会经济背景的三个欧洲国家的矿产勘探和采矿的报纸报道。研究了来自德国盖尔-厄尔士山区、西班牙安达卢西亚地区和芬兰北部的报纸文章。该样本调查了 2018 年 9 月至 2020 年 2 月期间，表明即使没有重大事故或其他引起关注高峰的媒体事件，地方报纸对采矿问题的报道也相对密集。文章的基调一般是对采矿活动持中性或积极的态度，反映了特定的当地环境、历史经验和未来预期。尽管这三个国家的背景不同，但所强调的主题有相当大的相似之处，包括矿业复兴、采矿事件和社会互动、采矿历史以及与采矿相关的损害等共同主题。与采矿业直接或间接相关的过去、现在和未来的就业机会是关键的故事情节。