There is more and more talk of “social license”, which would have the same value as an environmental permit to determine the progress of a project. The concept of social license is not universally recognized, but it has been a key issue in many disputes. The Supreme Court of Canada defines the concept of social license as being composed of multiple elements, which are changing and are currently based on the development of several key concepts at the international level32. The elements that should be taken into account in order to obtain the “social license” and before proceeding with a mining project are those of :

• Sustainability of the project: “Sustainable development” has been defined by the United Nations Bruntland Commission as “development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”;
• Environmental transparency: the environmental impact study must be done thoroughly and must be made public;
• Mobilization of stakeholders: these stakeholders must be informed, consulted and involved in the process of project development and implementation.

Mining Typology

There are two types of mining. The first, and perhaps the best known, is the underground mine. This can be represented as an immense anthill that consists of a system of tunnels connected to each other and which make it possible to reach the underground resources.

The technological advances made during the 20th century have made it possible to increase the scale of exploitation and, consequently, the production capacity of mining sites by transforming mining methods.

Surface exploration is the second category. Today, this type of mining accounts for 60% of mining mines worldwide2. This type of mining consists of digging by blasting, thus making it possible to successively remove layers of soil which are then transported to extract from the rock the minerals desired by various mechanical and / or chemical processes. This method is used when ore deposits are near the surface of the soil because it is more economical than underground mining. On the other hand, these so-called “open pit” mines produce 8 to 10 times more waste and residues than underground mines3. This category includes:

• open pit mining, which consists of the extraction of hard rock metals;
• quarries, from which various building materials such as gravel and sand are extracted;
• leaching mines, which use chemicals, such as sulfuric acid for copper and cyanide or sodium for gold, to separate metals from ores.