EIA is a test of a development proposal's legitimacy and asks two questions: not only is the proposal competent?' but also does the proposal have moral authority?' For reasons of mining's historic importance and of a scientific and technological industry culture, traditional EIA has focussed on the first on these, an increasingly misplaced priority in a changing world._x000D_
This paper explains why competence alone is not enough and examines the second of the two questions: what is meant by a project's moral authority, why does it matter, why has it taken so long to become an issue and what, in practical terms, can project proponents do about it.