Australian junior mining firms’ globalisation strategies and roles inside the sector remain understudied in economic geography. Such firms are often overshadowed by larger global mining interests, whose operations drive most foreign direct investment, capital, and operational expenditure tied to resource extraction. Unlike large multinationals and state-owned enterprises, junior firms are nimble, often untethered from path-dependent national systems, less encumbered by statutory constraints or corporate structures, and less accountable to shareholders. This study sought to understand globalisation strategies and roles among junior mining firms by reference to a case study of 55 Australian junior firms in Latin America. We used spatial analysis to uncover three patterns of junior firm globalisation strategies and roles: specialised service providers supporting the further development of mature and emerging mining industries; regional spearheads opening new destinations; and mineral avant-gardists developing new speculative industries that are critical to clean energy technologies. We conclude both that Australian junior firms play a crucial role in the development of critical resource basins in other nations and that there are significant forms of firm heterogeneity and functional integration at the core of mining globalisation that need to be more comprehensively incorporated in economic geography research.

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拉丁美洲的澳大利亚初级矿业公司的全球化战略和角色

澳大利亚初级矿业公司的全球化战略和在该行业中的作用在经济地理学中仍未得到充分研究。这些公司往往被更大的全球矿业利益所掩盖，其业务推动了与资源开采相关的大部分外国直接投资、资本和运营支出。与大型跨国公司和国有企业不同，初级公司很灵活，通常不受路径依赖的国家体系的束缚，较少受到法定约束或公司结构的束缚，对股东的责任较小。本研究通过参考拉丁美洲 55 家澳大利亚初级公司的案例研究，试图了解初级矿业公司的全球化战略和角色。我们使用空间分析来揭示初级公司全球化战略和角色的三种模式：支持成熟和新兴采矿业进一步发展的专业服务提供商；区域先锋开辟新目的地；和矿物先锋派开发对清洁能源技术至关重要的新投机产业。我们得出的结论是，澳大利亚初级公司在其他国家关键资源盆地的开发中发挥着至关重要的作用，并且在矿业全球化的核心存在重要形式的公司异质性和功能整合，需要更全面地纳入经济地理学研究.