Ranking according to attractiveness of mining policies - The ranking is essentially a composite index that measures the effects on exploration of government policies including uncertainty concerning the administration, interpretation, and enforcement of existing regulations; environmental regulations; regulatory duplication and inconsistencies; taxation; uncertainty concerning native land claims and protected areas; infrastructure; socioeconomic agreements; political stability; labor issues; geological database; and security.

 

The third column ranks according to whether or not a jurisdiction’s mineral potential under the current policy environment encourages or discourages exploration. Obviously this takes into account mineral potential, meaning that some jurisdictions, which rank high in the policy ranking but have limited hard mineral potential, will rank lower in the mineral potential, while jurisdictions with a weak policy environment but strong mineral potential will do better. This third column is important since "good policies" are of little use if little resources can be expected to be retrieved.

 

2008/2009   Ranking of that
Ranking according Name of the jurisdictions mineral
to attractiveness Jurisdiction potential relative
of mining policies    to policies
1 Quebec 2
2 Wyoming 15
3 Nevada 4
4 Alberta 36
5 Nfld. & Labrador 16
6 New Brunswick 24
7 Manitoba 29
8 Chile 1
9 Saskatchewan 5
10 Ontario 32
11 Utah 8
12 Nova Scotia 51
13 Sweden 6
14 Finland 3
15 Yukon 28
16 South Australia 10
17 Alaska 14
18 Botswana 17
19 Norway 31
20 Nth'n Territory n/a
21 Western Australia 7
22 Spain 45
23 New South Wales 12
24 British Columbia 44
25 Queensland 13
26 Ireland 46
27 Arizona 39
28 Mexico 9
29 Victoria 33
30 Peru 11
31 Tasmania 25
32 South Dakota 38
33 Mali 26
34 Namibia 34
35 Ghana 27
36 Idaho 42
37 Minnesota 55
38 Colorado 61
39 Brazil 21
40 NWT 49
41 China 54
42 Burkina Faso 20
43 Zambia 23
44 Nunavut 37
45 New Zealand 62
46 Colombia 35
47 Panama 30
48 Tanzania 22
49 South Africa 47
50 Turkey 18
51 Washington 66
52 Montana 63
53 Russia 53
54 California 65
55 Mongolia 57
56 Kazakhstan 40
57 Argentina 52
58 New Mexico 43
59 Philippines 50
60 Wisconsin 58
61 Papua New Guinea 48
62 Indonesia 41
63 DRC (Congo) 56
64 Kyrgyzstan 70
65 Zimbabwe 71
66 Bolivia 64
67 India 60
68 Honduras 67
69 Guatemala 59
70 Ecuador 69
71 Venezuela 68

The rankings above are from a reverse engineered analytical review by Madison Avenue Research of methodology used by the Fraser Institute in it's report, the full mining survey report is available here.