Title: The Paths to Social Licence to Operate: An Integrative Model Explaining Community Acceptance of Mining
Author/Institution: K. Moffat & A. Zhang, CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Australia
Publication Year: 2014
Trust as the Core Variable of Social License
Moffat and Zhang’s 2014 study advance the social license debate by proposing an empirically grounded model explaining how communities form acceptance judgments toward mining projects. Based on large- scale survey data from Australian mining regions, the authors identify trust—particularly trust in the company’s procedural fairness and relationship quality—as the central predictor of social license. Rather than focusing exclusively on economic benefits or environmental performance, the study shows that communities evaluate projects through relational dimensions: whether they feel heard, respected, and treated fairly. Social license, in this framework, emerges from perceived integrity and responsiveness rather than material compensation alone.
Procedural Justice and Distributional Fairness
The integrative model distinguishes between distributional fairness (how benefits and burdens are shared) and procedural fairness (how decisions are made and communicated). Moffat and Zhang demonstrate that even economically beneficial projects may face resistance if communities perceive exclusion from decision-making processes. Conversely, transparent engagement and credible grievance mechanisms significantly enhance acceptance levels. The findings shift the emphasis from transactional compensation models toward structured dialogue systems and institutional accountability, reinforcing that legitimacy is constructed through ongoing interaction rather than one-time agreements.
Implications for Stakeholder Governance and Project Stability
The study provides a practical framework highly relevant to contemporary discussions on license renewals, concession reforms, and stakeholder engagement redesign. In contexts where governments renegotiate fiscal terms or where communities demand stronger participation—such as in Africa and Latin America this week—the model suggests that stability depends on embedding procedural justice into project governance. Companies and regulators seeking to transition from license to operate toward stakeholder prosperity must prioritize trust-building systems, transparent benefit-sharing, and credible participatory mechanisms. Moffat and Zhang’s work underscores that long-term operational continuity is fundamentally relational, anchored in sustained community confidence rather than formal authorization alone.