Title: Social license to operate: a case study from a Brazilian mining industry

Authors: Ana Lúcia Frezzatti Santiago; Jacques Demajorovic

Addresses: Centro Universitário da FEI, Tamandaré street, 688, Liberdade, Campus São Paulo Postal Code 01525- 000. São Paulo-SP, Brazil ' Centro Universitário da FEI, Tamandaré street, 688, Liberdade, Campus São Paulo Postal Code 01525- 000. São Paulo-SP, Brazil

Abstract: In productive activities with great potential to generate economic, social and environmental impacts, conventional approaches based on legal compliance are no longer sufficient to render the actions of the companies lawful and make the involvement of the stakeholders effective. Studies stress the need for mining activities to receive legitimacy represented by an SLO issued by the company's stakeholders. This study analyses how a social project carried out by one of the largest mining companies in Brazil contributed to the SLO process. As a methodological procedure, interviews to the community representatives were conducted. The results show that, although the strategy adopted by the company contributed towards the SLO process, the development of robust methodologies to engage other company's stakeholders and to sustain the local legitimacy achieved is required.

Keywords: case study; Brazil; mining industry; social license to operate; SLO; social impact; corporate social responsibility; CSR; stakeholders; local legitimacy.

DOI: 10.1504/LAJMSD.2016.078622

Latin American Journal of Management for Sustainable Development, 2016 Vol.3 No.1, pp.19 - 34

Received: 27 Jul 2015
Accepted: 02 Feb 2016
Published online: 26 Aug 2016 *

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