As underground mining continues to expand throughout the world, tough questions have emerged around the theme of social license. Markets (including the market for sustainable energy) will increasingly rely on underground mineral deposits – that much is clear – but how do we reach those deposits in a way that is smart, ethical, and acceptable to a plethora of community stakeholders?

Mining and METS companies have been compelled to provide symbolic answers to these questions (e.g. a corporate web page dedicated to social license) in order to stay competitive and attract investors.

But here’s what people really want to know: Are a company’s stated goals or policies congruent to what you’ll find on the ground (or underground, as the case may be)? Is it an empty exercise in corporate language, or does it have integral meaning at all levels of the mining operation?

What we’ve seen underground

Davey Bickford-Enaex have delivered blasting solutions to countless underground mining sites in Australia and in other countries. This has given us insights into what strong social license policy looks like underground, how it measures up to corporate language, and how we can enhance our own social license policy by learning from what others have done.

Here’s an important thing we’ve noticed: The culture within mining houses – at least many of the mining houses we’ve partnered with – is often quite good, regardless of that company’s official statements around social license. There is good attention to environmental impact, which tends to go hand-in-hand with more efficient operations. There is an evolving approach to the long-term health and safety of workers on the ground. There is growing diversity within the ranks of the organisation, and a meaningful approach to community engagement.  

At the same time, there is often a disconnect between what we find in written policy to what we find at a site level. In other words, a lot of employees know that mining companies need a social license policy in order to operate in modern markets, but they don’t know much about the policy itself.

Is this incongruence such a negative thing, provided that the everyday decisions and habits of workers feed constructively into the company’s goals around social license? Arguably not. While corporate policies are constructive and necessary, the realities of mining can’t be described by a few hundred words on a screen.

Taking the conversation further

The 2020 Underground Operators Conference in Perth (25-27 March) seeks to hit the most important nerves in underground mining today, including social license. The final morning of the conference features seven different presenters, all coming at the challenge of social license from unique angles. 

Joshua Northfield of Evolution Mining will discuss the ongoing development an underground mine near the shore of Lake Cowa, an environmentally and culturally important site. This mining operation has a complex 25-year history of exploration and development by Barrick Gold, and was acquired by Evolution Mining in 2015. The historical arc of the project will be explored, including everything from environmental and technical issues to different ownership philosophies.

Also notable is a presentation on AusIMM Social and Environment Society by Georgia Manning, a Chair of that organisation. A lot of insight into themes of social license should come out of this talk, including the role of cross-discipline collaboration, the promotion of the minerals sector to the wider community, and the value of professional development initiatives to help diversify the industry.

These and other sessions will provide valuable insights into social license: Why it has developed, why the perception at mining sites is not always congruent to the mining company’s stated goals, and why social license is deeply significant to the development of a profitable underground mining strategy. We look forward to seeing you there.