The H2020 funded project MIREU, Mining and Metallurgy Regions of EU has organised on 5 and 6 June 2019 its 3rd SLO Workshop “Ensuring SLO is adaptive and resilient” at the Saxony Liaison Office in Brussels. Around 60 experts from the broad field of mining and mineral exploration participated in the 2-day event to exchange on the mining industry’s perception by society, European SLO strategies, SLO in the global context and SLO as rules of engagement. The high representation of European projects, organizations, industry, NGOs and authorities has allowed a very productive debate.
INFACT project partners Ludger Benighaus (DIALOGIK), Isabel Fernandez (EFG) and Javier Gomez (AT-CLAVE) joined in and exchanged current experiences they made with INFACT concerning public opinion, acceptance of mining and mineral exploration, and options to engage with stakeholders at an early stage of a mining project. The INFACT representatives have also highlighted the need to align INFACT with other European projects to define the SLO concept in exploration projects. Apart from INFACT, the exploration sector was absent in the debate, and consequently, the project’s contribution was extremely relevant to achieve a complete vision of SLO in the European mining sector.