Article Don’t wake up the dragon! Monstrous geontologies in a mining waste impoundment Sebastia ´n Ureta and Patricio Flores Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile Abstract This paper is an invitation to view tailings – the most prominent byproduct generated by mining activity – as more than their usual incarnation as waste, object of governance by waste management programs. In doing so, it applies Elizabeth Povinelli’s notions about geontopower/ geontologies to analyze the practices devoted to managing the tailings produced by Mina El Teniente, a large copper mine located in central Chile. From this framework, the mine’s tailings impoundment are enacted as both a “dragon” and a “trickster”, entities endowed with a mon- strous vitality that openly challenges the mining industry’s usual geontologies, which are based on understanding impoundments as docile nonliving deserts very much open to capitalist exploita- tion/forgetting. On the contrary, the dragon/trickster enacts a geontology in which human beings appear as ultimately unable to truly control nonliving entities, and depend only on their goodwill to avoid environmental disaster. The acceptance of such a geontology, as will be explored in the conclusions, challenges us to develop a geo-teratology , or a set of alternative political and ethical commitments we should devise in order to start better living with the monstrous geontologies of mining waste. Keywords Mining waste, waste management, geontologies, dragons, trickster, geo-teratology Finding a dragon at Care ´n We were at the beginning of our first proper interview with Raul Cuevas in August 2014, the head of the tailings unit at Mina El Teniente, when he introduced us to the dragon. Corresponding author: Sebastia ´n Ureta, Departamento de Sociolog  ıa, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile. Email: sureta@uahurtado.cl Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 0(0) 1–18 ! The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0263775818780373 journals.sagepub.com/home/epd