Linking ESG, Social License to Operate and Local Regulatory Compliance: toward an Integrated Sustainable Mining Governance and Performance Framework in the DR Congo

In the era of global energy transition, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) occupies a major strategic position thanks to its significant reserves of critical minerals. However, their extraction faces persistent challenges of social and environmental  impact and governance. While Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria and the Social License to Operate (SLO) have become established international approaches in extractive sustainability, their application in contexts of fragile governance like the DRC’s remains fragmented and often disconnected from local realities. This study examines the interactions between ESG indicators, SLO, and national regulatory obligations to illuminate the determinants of sustainable mining performance. Adopting a conceptual and theoretical approach based on a structured and integrative literature review of a multidisciplinary body of literature (scientific, institutional, and normative corpora), it develops a new framework to connect ESG, Local regulatory compliance and SLO: the Integrated Sustainable Mining Governance and Performance Framework (ISMGP Framework).

The results highlight that while ESG criteria are essential levers for legitimation, their actual effectiveness depends on their local adoption and the quality of governance. The analysis reveals systemic tensions between regulatory frameworks and acceptability, particularly where laws are proposed but poorly enforced. A “Congolese paradox” is identified: the existence of a robust formal Mining Code that nevertheless struggles to generate genuine social acceptability due to implementation gaps and information asymmetries.

To address these limitations, the ISMGP Framework integrates ESG performance, local Regulatory Compliance (RC), and SLO, using the SLO score (assessment scale, e.g scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 7) as an operational viability coefficient that conditions formal technical performance (ESG + RC). Consequently, a deficit in social trust can transform a technically compliant project into a failed asset. Finally, the study outlines paths for future empirical and operationalization validation in the DRC mining projects to calibrate indicators and develop real-time performance monitoring tools, positioning the ISMGP as a conceptual, heuristic, governance-oriented decision-support architecture for fragile institutional contexts.