The United Nation has proposed 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all stakeholders and community. Either facing poverty, quality education, gender equality, or increasing economic growth and innovating industry and infrastructure or environmental protection or creating sustainable cities and communities, the mining industry is engaged.Southeast Asia consists of countries at various stages of economic development that are increasingly integrating into the terms of trade, investment, and finance. The mining industry plays a critical role in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam, partly contributing to the increasing growth rates of the Gross Domestic Products in these countries since years. Mining companies are also top tax-payers and the biggest employers, although modern mining is using fewer intensive labors. CITATION:Nguyen, N, 2019. Social license to operate within Southeast Asia, in Proceedings 9th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry, pp 89 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).