The Social License to Operate (SLO) has emerged as a leading concept to assess the local legitimacy of extractive operations. Recently, the private sector and researchers have underlined how important it is to obtain an SLO from the communities affected by the mining activities to ensure stable cohabitation and prevent social conflicts. Using a historical approach, I analyze the measures taken by the state and large-scale mining (LSM) companies extracting cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo to ensure the SLOs and assess their results. In this chapter, I argue that the SLO in the DRC’s cobalt sector has constantly deteriorated after the independence despite the growing attention given to local populations’ acceptability of mining activities and the development of environmental, social, governance (ESG) standards. I present evidence that current LSM operations have failed to secure their SLO due to the human rights violations as well as the environmental harm associated with the mining activities and their incapacity, perceived or real, to share the benefit of the cobalt extraction with the local communities. To conclude, this chapter recommends that LSM invest in meaningful engagement with local populations and civil society organizations (CSOs) as well as recognize harms and offer effective remedies to communities impacted by their activities.