This report examines the influence of political and institutional factors on environmental licensing processes, including environmental assessment and approval, for mining projects. It aims at devising better ways to take account of, and respond to, political and institutional factors as part of environmental assessment and approval processes. The research is based on the premise that while political and institutional dimensions exert a strong influence on regulatory impact assessment and approval processes (Tang et al., 2005, Bebbington and Bury, 2009a, Owens et al., 2004), this influence is often poorly understood, leading to shortcomings in design and implementation (Devlin and Yap, 2008, Glasson and Salvador, 2000, Doelle and Sinclair, 2006).