THE SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE
‘You don’t get your social license by going to a government ministry and making an application or simply paying a fee… It requires far more than money to truly become part of the communities in which you operate.’
- Pierre Lassonde, President of Newmont Mining Corporation.
The resource industries are accepted by the public at large because of the role they play in society, providing the essential materials for society’s needs and well being. There can be no doubt as to the historic role of the natural resource industries have played in the advance of societies and the economic growth and industrialization of specific countries. However, at the level of individual projects this acceptance is neither automatic nor unconditional. Today, there is the need to gain and maintain the support of the people that live and work in the area of impact and influence of any given project – to have a Social License to Operate. There is ample evidence that a failure to gain and maintain this License leads to trouble for the proponents of a project.