Time on hold: Justice, governance, and the politics of transitions in critical mineral frontiers

Abstract

• Interrogates six ways time is governed and experienced in critical mineral frontiers, focusing on lithium mining in Ghana. • Introduces the concept of 'temporal justice' to analyse the suspension of livelihoods and delays in decision-making. • Demonstrates how temporal disjuncture intersects with distributive, recognition and procedural injustice in the transition. • Draws on qualitative fieldwork to foreground community perspectives on waiting, exclusion, and the politics of time. • Calls for governance frameworks that recognize time as a right and integrate temporal accountability into just transitions. This paper examines the concept of temporal justice in the governance of critical minerals, focusing on the period between mineral discovery and the onset of mining. Drawing on qualitative data from fieldwork in the lithium-rich communities of Ewoyaa, Krampa Krom, and Krofu in Ghana’s Mfantsiman municipality, the study examines how time becomes a contested dimension of just transitions. The analysis reveals that the interim period, often marked by legal ambiguities, delayed compensation, and exclusion from decision-making, produces a state of temporal suspension for affected communities. Livelihoods are disrupted, social life is put on hold, and the future becomes uncertain, yet these temporal losses are rarely acknowledged or compensated. The paper argues that this 'freezing of time' constitutes a form of distributive, procedural, and recognition injustice, with long-term implications for community well-being and trust in governance. By foregrounding temporality as a critical lens, the study contributes to our understanding of transition governance and the intersections of the spatial and temporal. It also contributes to emerging debates on just transitions and critical minerals governance, emphasising the need to account for time not only as a resource but as a right. The findings call for governance frameworks that recognise and remediate temporal harms, particularly in the Global South, where communities are often rendered passive in the face of extractive timelines driven by global demand.