The social licence (SL) is the level of approval or acceptance extended by stakeholders and local communities towards an organisation or its activities (Thomson & Boutilier, 2011). The Thomson and Boutilier model (2011) posits four levels ranging from a withheld SL, to tolerance or acceptance, to approval or support, to psychological identification. It is generally assumed that a higher level of SL is better. However, SL assessment studies highlight a hidden peril. It may be possible to have too much of a good thing.Six Australian mine sites were studied in 2018 using measures of the SL based on the Thomson and Boutilier model. The measures were taken in telephone interviews with spokespersons for stakeholder groups and organisations who were nominated and invited by the mining companies. Stakeholders used a 5-point scale to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with a set of statements about their relationships with, and perceptions of, the company at their particular site. The average of the ratings constituted the stakeholders SL score granted to the company. The average of the scores granted by all the stakeholders at a given site was taken as the level of SL granted to the company at that site. The number of stakeholders interviewed at each site ranged from 15 to 26 and their SL score averaged 4.08 on a scale from 1 to 5. CITATION:Black, L D and Boutilier, R G, 2019. Too much of a good thing? Can a strong social licence leave communities in tears?, in Proceedings 9th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry, pp 129130 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).