Social licence versus procedural justice: Competing narratives of (Il)legitimacy at the San Xavier mine, Mexico

Abstract Mining activities have met with opposition and resistance in many countries. As a way to defuse and overcome such opposition, many mining companies have adopted various strategies designed to obtain a ‘Social Licence to Operate’. However, while mining companies have sometimes embraced this approach they have nevertheless met with continuing opposition. We argue that this is because the corporate-framed Social Licence to Operate does not take into account some of the factors to which civil society groups object. As a result, competing narratives arise with the social licence narrative facing one based on procedural justice and advanced by civil society opponents. We illustrate this by examining the prominent San Xavier gold and silver mine in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico. We show how the two narratives differ in defining who should be consulted, what should be the object of investigation (the company or the mine), and the nature of corporate-state relations. We point to the policy implications of this.