Australia Is The World’s Best Place for Mining Investment – Survey

For the fourth year in a row, Australia ranks as the best place for mining investment in the world. In a freshly released survey by leading US minerals industry advisory group Behre Dolbear Australia scored 0.7 percent lower than in 2012, as its rising dollar currency was marked as a concern. Rated highly on account of its economic and political stability, Australia was followed by Canada, with Chile, Brazil and Mexico rounding out the top five

At the other end of this year’s ranking, the five lowest scoring mining countries are Russia and Mozambique, followed by Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea and Kazakhstan.

The United States and Papua New Guinea were ranked as the countries with the most numerous permitting delays – a main indicator of the time it takes to bring a new mine online. The countries with the fewest mining permitting delays, in order of ranking, are Australia, Tanzania, Mexico, Chile and Columbia.

In terms of one of the other risk factors affecting the development of mining projects globally -- social issues -- Behre Dolbear ranked Australia, Chile, Columbia and Brazil as the countries most effective at managing these risks, while the least effective countries were Papua New Guinea, India, South Africa and Zambia.
The professionals also ranked the countries according to the levels of corruption in the mining sector.

Australia ranked highest as having the least corrupt business environment, followed by Canada, the US and Chile, while Kazakhstan and Russia tied as the countries with the greatest incidence of corruption.

Three mining countries - Bolivia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe - did not even make it to the list this year although they contain significant mineral wealth.
Bolivia’s is strongly discouraging foreign investment as the government continues to nationalise mining companies while Venezuela and Zimbabwe are not on the list due to their inherently low ranking, Behre Dolbear said, and advised clients “to exercise notable caution when considering investments in these countries.”

Looking beyond these countries, however, the current minerals market strength is supportive of new investment, according to the advisory firm. Despite the market’s low activity during former recessionary cycles, there are now significant investments occurring in locations that were once deemed unviable due to the perception of high political risk.

The survey also found that “the supply and demand fundamentals for key minerals remain strong”, while commodity prices are poised for a “rapid ramp-up before this year’s end”.