Obtaining the Social Licence to Operate Through Community Consultation: A Case Study of the African Mining Industry

Although endowed with mineral resources, many African countries are impoverished because their mineral resources are consistently mismanaged through greed, ineptitude, and corruption. The poverty crisis ravaging Africa makes a case for a mutually beneficial relationship between mining companies and host communities on whose land mineral exploitation takes place. The social licence to operate (SLO) is the bedrock for such a mutually beneficial relationship. The SLO leads to the acceptance of projects and creates a sense of ownership among host communities. Conversely, project owners who fail to obtain the SLO often encounter public opposition, which is detrimental to the success of mining projects. This chapter situates and analyzes the SLO in the context of the statutory provisions requiring community consultation in Africa. These statutory provisions could lead to the SLO, particularly where community consultation results in benefit-sharing between mining companies and host communities. However, the chapter notes that the statutory provisions are inadequate because they do not clearly delineate the modalities and parameters for community consultation.