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Miners rank jurisdictions in annual Fraser Institute report card

by Greg Klein | February 22, 2018

Although Finland edged Saskatchewan out of first place and Manitoba fell dramatically, Canada’s total provincial and territorial ratings held this country’s reputation as the world’s most mining-friendly nation. Those are among the findings of the Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2017, released February 22. For this year’s edition the authors contacted 2,700 companies, getting 360 responses which were tabulated into several indices. Most prominent is the Investment Attractiveness Index, which combines ratings for each jurisdiction’s geology and policies. “Respondents consistently indicate that approximately 40% of their investment decision is determined by policy factors,” according to the report.

With that in mind, here’s the 2017 IAI top 10 out of 91 jurisdictions, with the previous year’s standings out of 104 jurisdictions in parenthesis:

  • 1 Finland (5)

  • 2 Saskatchewan (1)

  • 3 Nevada (4)

  • 4 Ireland (9)

  • 5 Western Australia (3)

  • 6 Quebec (6)

  • 7 Ontario (18)

  • 8 Chile (39)

  • 9 Arizona (7)

  • 10 Alaska (14)

Ontario demonstrated substantial improvement, but Chile showed a dramatic surge for the copper and lithium powerhouse.

As for Canadian runners-up, Manitoba plunged from second to 18th place while British Columbia and New Brunswick gained considerably:

  • 11 Newfoundland and Labrador (16)

  • 13 Yukon (15)

  • 18 Manitoba (2)

  • 20 B.C. (27)

  • 21 Northwest Territories (21)

  • 26 Nunavut (31)

  • 30 New Brunswick (40)

  • 49 Alberta (47)

  • 56 Nova Scotia (52)

Only two Argentinian provinces made the bottom 10, compared with five last year. Meanwhile China, although the world’s biggest consumer of minerals, isn’t such a great place to produce them:

(Images: Fraser Institute)

  • 82 Nicaragua (71)

  • 83 China (54)

  • 84 Romania (69)

  • 85 Venezuela (102)

  • 86 Bolivia (83)

  • 87 Mozambique (95)

  • 88 Chubut province, Argentina (101)

  • 89 Mendoza province, Argentina (98)

  • 90 Kenya (86)

  • 91 Guatemala (88)

Geology results from forces beyond our control but government policies have all-too human origins. So it might be worth looking at how Canada rates in the survey’s Policy Perception Index, which rates jurisdictions according to mining-friendliness:

  • 3 Saskatchewan (2)

  • 9 Quebec (17)

  • 10 Newfoundland and Labrador (18)

  • 13 New Brunswick (8)

  • 16 Alberta (28)

  • 20 Ontario (26)

  • 22 Yukon (25)

  • 24 Nova Scotia (11)

  • 27 Manitoba (6)

  • 36 B.C. (41)

  • 42 Northwest Territories (48)

  • 44 Nunavut (58)

Internationally, Ireland—now fourth place on the IAI list—held the PPI top spot for the fifth straight year. The Democratic Republic of Congo, a crucial supplier of copper and cobalt with significant gold and diamonds too, lurked just a few spots from last place at number 87 on the PPI. The DRC rated 51 on the IAI but 11 on the Best Practices Mineral Potential Index, which considers geology alone. Indonesia claimed first place on that index, although a nearly last-place Policy Perception standing held it to #35 on the IAI.

The 360 respondents spent a total of US$2.3 billion on exploration in 2017. Some 47% of replies came from exploration companies, another 29% from miners, 15% from consulting companies and 9% from other sources.

Download the Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2017.



This post first appeared on Resource Clips, please read the originial post: here

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Miners rank jurisdictions in annual Fraser Institute report card

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