Sask. drops out of Top 10 for mining investment
Saskatchewan has slipped out of the Top 10 in the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of mining companies.
The province, ranked sixth best last year out of more than 90 jurisdictions in terms of a favourable investment climate, fell to 13th place this year.
Alana Wilson, a policy analyst with the Fraser Institute, said one of the reasons for the downgrade was the question over which areas would be protected as wilderness, parks or archeological sites.
“Mining and explorers spend years, and sometimes decades, investing in an exploration,” Wilson said. “If there is changes midway through that eliminate certain areas from mining development, that would be a really bad signal for the industry — if they see it as risky or changing the rules of the game midway through.”
“It dropped a bit in taxation regime and also in labour and skills availability,” she said. “These are both factors that are very important for mining investment.
“But it still has a lot of things that are very attractive for it to be ranked so high in the survey.”
Finland was ranked No. 1 worldwide followed by Sweden, with Alberta (third), New Brunswick (fourth) and the Yukon (eighth) cracking the Top 10.
“Miners praise Alberta and New Brunswick for their transparent, straightforward, and productive approach to mining policy,” said Kenneth Green, Fraser Institute senior director of energy and natural resources and director of the survey. “Alberta and New Brunswick offer competitive taxation regimes, sound legal systems, and relatively low uncertainty around land claims. That’s what miners are looking for.”
The survey is based on the opinions of mining executives representing 742 mineral exploration and development companies on the investment climate of 96 jurisdictions around the world.
“BUT IT STILL HAS A LOT OF THINGS THAT ARE VERY ATTRACTIVE FOR IT TO BE RANKED SO HIGH IN THE SURVEY.” ALANA WILSON
Worldwide, the top 10 mining destinations are Finland, Sweden, Alberta, New Brunswick, Wyoming, Ireland, Nevada, Yukon, Utah, and Norway.
Quebec, ranked first worldwide from 2007-10, fell to 11th, Nova Scotia was 12th, Saskatchewan 13th, Ontario 16th, Newfoundland and Labrador 18th, Manitoba 21st, Northwest Territories 29th, British Columbia 31st and Nunavut 37th.
Ranking as the world’s worst mining jurisdictions are Indonesia, Vietnam, Venezuela, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Guatemala, Philippines and Greece.
The report also notes that miners are pessimistic about short-term commodity prices.
The survey found that they expect nearly level or reduced prices for silver, copper, diamonds, coal, zinc, nickel, potash, and platinum with only gold expected to increase in value significantly.
In the longer term, miners expect stable or moderate price increases.
“You compete for investment on the global mining stage, jurisdictions need not only stellar resource potential but also a stable, certain, straightforward mining policy framework,” Green said.
The institute has been conducting the annual survey of investment climates since 1997.