Challenge the practice is addressing: The practice presents an index model, which measures the likelihood of achieving a social licence to operate of mineral exploration and mining projects. To achieve and maintain the Social License to Operate there must be mutual understanding and trust between the project, local communities and governance structures.The Social License to Operate index provides the mining professionals with a tool to measure their Social License to Operate building and to identify potential risks along the way.
Concrete practice to achieve the expected goal: The INFACT Social License to Operate index builds on four dimensions of Social License to Operate: 1) stakeholder relations, 2) regional development, 3) local context and 4) good governance. The development of the Social License to Operate index was inspired by existing parameters such as The Human Development Index and the Multidimensional Poverty index. Building on the above-mentioned indices, indicators for a Social License to Operate index were developed and a weighting and aggregation scheme was selected to meet the design criteria and data limitations.
Expected impact/goal of the practice: The purpose of the practice is to quantify a series of qualitative actors to enable and assist practitioners in mining industry to achieve and maintain a social license to operate while monitoring potential areas of risks that require attention.
Who is the target user group of the practice/intervention or implementing the practice/intervention? The practice is aimed at geologists and mining engineers, as well as other industry representatives working on mineral exploration and mining projects.