"A research project for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY). The exploitation of natural resources in polar areas is an instructive example of the way man is exploiting the natural resources in the world. The voyages of discovery in the second half of the 16th century and later, during the so called Heroic Century of Polar Exploration (1870-1920), including the first International Polar Year (1882-1883), made it possible for the western colonial powers to penetrate into the polar areas. The voyages of discovery not only led to the exploitation of natural resources but also to scientific research. In both cases, stations were built to facilitate the work and to lodge the people. According to Friedmann's core/periphery concept (1966) the polar areas can be called Resource Frontier Regions because they produce raw material for the industrial centres in the world core areas (Sugden 1982). Whaling, fur hunting and mining have produced raw materials for the international market for more than 400 years. These activities were carried out by companies and people from outside the polar regions. The companies belonged to worldwide actor networks (Latour 1986, Law & Callon 1992) in the core areas and local networks in the polar areas. It is notable how similar the developments were in both polar areas. One can divide the exploitation of natural resources in both areas into two phases: directly after the discovery a first phase in which fur hunters and whalers from different countries were active and a second phase in which the activities were focused on the exploitation of minerals..."