What happens when mining moves from land into the open and deep sea?
In other words, what takes place when the sea enters the mining industry, and mining enters the offshore world?

OCEAN-MINeD project investigates the porous assemblage of knowledge, technologies, and practices that make the emergence of the deep-sea mining industry possible. To explore this, the research engages with conferences, interdisciplinary meetings, and workshops to identify key actors, networks, and forms of expertise shaping this field. In addition, the project involves direct participation in floating research laboratories—spaces where scientists, engineers, and sailors collaborate to collect samples, map and digitise the seabed, and navigate the practical and ethical challenges of working in the open and deep ocean.

Previous Research

My previous work has focused on mining in New Caledonia (a French overseas territory in the Pacific Ocean), where I examined the involvement of the Kanak people in the nickel industry, emphasising life stories, cosmologies, and the independence movement.

I have also conducted research in Mayotte (a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean), exploring local forms of environmentalism and connections to the sea as part of the interdisciplinary project Future Maore Reefs.

I am currently affiliated to ASMOG project  and co-founder and co-convenor of Anthropology of the seas network within the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). 

Monography: 

2022, La montagna e il capitale. Il cammino kanak del nickel, Milano: Prospero Editore 

Special Issue: 

Gentilucci M., Stoica G., 2025, Introduzione. Oltre la collaborazione: per una politica delle alleanze, Antropologia, 12, 1, pp. 9-20 

Peer-reviewed articles: 

2025, “Deep sea”. In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Hanna Nieber. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/25deepsea

2024, Gentilucci, M., Exploring Oceanic Dimensions. Rethinking Materiality and Automation in Deep-sea Mining, Public Anthropologists, 6, pp. 292-314

2024, Gentilucci, M., & Stoica, G. ‘Does the Environment Only Exist Here?’ Hyper-Environmentalism and Eco-Infantilisation on Mayotte Island. Ethnos, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2024.2404854

2022, Il futuro che volevano i nostri antenati, tra sentieri già scritti e nuovi immaginari (Nuova Caledonia), LARES, Special issue, LXXXVIII, 2, pp. 217 - 236 

2022, ‘On board’ deep-sea mining. An ocean-based perspective, Archivio antropologico mediterraneo, Anno XXV, 24, 2, pp. 1-17

2020, Dalla montagna alla miniera. La sacralizzazione del nichel nel nord della Nuova Caledonia, LARES, Special issue «Economie umane, economie intime. Né per Dio né per denaro», LXXXVI, 2, pp. 267 -286

2019, Self-determination referendum, mining and ‘interdependence’: Reading the current political conjuncture in New Caledonia, Small States & Territories, 2, 2, pp. 157-170

2016, I kanak nella corrente del capitalismo. Forme di riappropriazione culturale del nichel (Nuova Caledonia), L’uomo, Società Tradizione Sviluppo, Special issue «Nuovi fermenti dell'antropologia oceanistica italiana», 41, 2, pp. 29-48

Book's chapters: 

forthcoming, The Mtoro as the Spectre of the Past: Post-Slavery and Identity Making in Mayotte, in F. Becker, C. Coret, J. Glassman, & Margot Luyckfasseel, Slavery and its Aftermaths in East Africa Politics, Gender, and Memory, Palgrave

2022, Pacific Islands: Sources of Raw Materials, in I. Ness and Z. Cope (a cura di), The Oxford Handbook of Economic Imperialism, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 475 - 495

2020, Risorse, miniere, capitalismo indigeno. Il caso Koniambo Nickel (Nuova Caledonia), in A. Favole (a cura di), L’Europa d’Oltremare. Culture, mobilità, ambienti, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, pp. 31-42

2020, Essere e apparire come “noi, Kanak” (Nuova Caledonia), in A. Favole (a cura di), L’Europa d’Oltremare. Culture, mobilità, ambienti, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, pp. 183-198