In March 1997, as part of the mining industrys broader coming to understand what sustainable development means for the industry, Canadian mining company executive Jim Cooney used the term social license in a presentation at a World Bank conference to describe the challenge that mining companies face in building relationships with local communities around their projects. Cooney argued that especially in developing countries the legal license (government permit) for operating a mine, must be complemented with a social license, responding to the need to to engage with local communities that were directly affected, as well with their institutional supporters around the world, to seek their approval for the establishment of a mine in their vicinity. The quick uptake, adoption and popularity of the term and concept has resulted in a broad range of definitions, narratives and practises (e.g. Gupta & Kumar, 2018) and is often a container term: from when a mining project is seen as having the broad, ongoing approval and acceptance of society to conduct its activities (e.g. Thomson & Boutilier, 2011) to it is more about reducing overt opposition to industry than it is about engagement for long-term development (Owen & Kemp, 2012).This extended abstract looks at where the concept of social license to operate (SLO) in Europe stands in comparison to Australia and Canada using artificial intelligence-driven narrative analysis, and how it is being adopted, with the Horizon 2020 project MIREU and its case studies, qualitative research and stakeholder engagement, playing a key role. CITATION:Tost, M, Lesser, P, Gugerell, K and Hitch, M, 2019. Social license from a European perspective, in Proceedings 9th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry, pp 1214 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).