A social license to operation has traditionally focussed on the local communities near a mine or smelter. Local communities can still have a major impact on whether an operation is seen as an asset or a liability but for fossil fuels and particularly coal the social license is becoming more leveraged to national public opinion and government energy policies. This is not just the case in Australia where, despite the outcome of the recent election, opposition to coal mining remains a potent and growing political issue. In the US, the use of thermal coal is declining rapidly despite support from the Trump administration and in Germany a coal exit commission recently produced a roadmap which has coal being phased out by 2038. Coal and potentially all fossil fuel producers face a reality that even with an engaged and supportive local community, their future is dependent on attitudes in major population centres including state and national capitals. What then are the options for coal miners to respond to a public demand for decarbonisation that threatens their existence?
CITATION: Orchard, J P, 2019. Social license to operate in the coal industry, in Proceedings Future Mining 2019, pp 111113 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).