Title: The Process of Constructing and Maintaining a Social Licence to Operate in a Developing Market Context
Author/Institution: N.S. Chipangamate, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria
Publication Year: 2020
Social License as a Continuous Process, Not an Event
Chipangamate’s doctoral research offers one of the most detailed empirical examinations of how social license is built and sustained in developing-market mining contexts. Based on in-depth case studies, the thesis challenges the idea of LTO as a static outcome secured through one-off agreements or compliance milestones. Instead, it conceptualizes social license as a dynamic, evolving process, shaped by recurring interactions between mining companies and host communities over time. Cooperation agreements, dialogue platforms, and joint decision-making mechanisms emerge as central instruments through which legitimacy is negotiated and re-negotiated.
Cooperative Agreements and the Institutionalization of Trust
Methodologically, the research combines qualitative field interviews, document analysis, and stakeholder mapping to trace how companies and communities move from adversarial or transactional relationships toward more structured forms of cooperation. Chipangamate shows that cooperative agreements—similar to those observed in Las Bambas–type cases—play a pivotal role when they institutionalize communication channels, clarify mutual expectations, and define procedures for addressing grievances. Crucially, the study finds that trust does not stem from the content of agreements alone, but from their implementation consistency, transparency, and adaptability as conditions change on the ground.
Beyond Agreements: From Acceptance to Enduring Legitimacy
One of the thesis’s most relevant contributions lies in its insight that cooperation agreements are a means, not an end. Chipangamate demonstrates that social license remains fragile when agreements are treated as conflict-resolution tools rather than as components of a broader relationship-management strategy. Sustainable legitimacy depends on whether cooperative arrangements translate into tangible improvements in livelihoods, participation, and local capacity-building. In this sense, the research strongly supports a shift from viewing LTO as social acceptance toward understanding it as a pathway to stakeholder prosperity, where negotiated cooperation becomes a platform for long-term regional value creation rather than short-term stability.