Botswana Excels in Mining Survey

Fraser Institute - Botswana among top ten mining nations with improved score

The Toronto, Canada based Fraser Institute released its latest, 2010-11, annual global Survey of Mining Companies.

Since 1997, the Institute has surveyed mining and exploration companies to assess how mineral endowments and public policy factors such as taxation and regulation affect exploration investment. Survey results thus represent the opinions of a wide range of executives and exploration managers in mining and mining consulting companies operating around the world.

This year's survey included data on 79 key jurisdictions, located on every continent except Antarctica, further incorporating separate assessments for sub-national jurisdictions in Canada, Australia, and the United States.
According to the report, Botswana's achieved a score of 74 in this year's survey, up from 66.5 last year, placing it in 14th position among all the jurisdictions and 7th among the nations surveyed.

This year's improved score restores Botswana to the it previous highpoint of 2007/08, that is just before the global recession.

Globally the Canadian Province of Alberta, followed by the US state of Nevada and the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan captured the top three positions.
Table - Top 20 Mining Jurisdiction 2010/11 -
Jurisdiction                       Score
1. Alberta (Canada)             90.4
2. Nevada (USA)                 89.3
3. Saskatchewan (Canada)   87.5
4. Quebec (Canada)             86.6
5. Finland                            86.0
6. Utah (USA)                      85.1
7. Sweden                           82.3
8. Chile                                81.3
9. Manitoba (Canada)            80.3
10. Wyoming (USA)              77.8
11. South Australia               75.9
12. Greenland (Denmark)       74.9
13. Newfoundland &              74.6
    Labrador (Canada)
14. Botswana                       74.0
15. Yukon (Canada)              73.0
16. Ireland                           72.6
17. Western Australia           70.6
18. Ontario (Canada)             68.7
19. Nova Scotia (Canada)       68.6
20. New South Wales (Aus)    68.2
 
Among the conclusions in this year's report is that there is growing optimism a post-economic downturn return to significant growth in the mineral sector globally, which is likely to further favour Botswana and other jurisdictions which have put in place strong frameworks for attracting investment into the sector.
 
In addition to Botswana, it is predicted that the anticipated upturn should benefit other notably improved African performers such as Namibia, Mali and Burkina Faso.
By contrast, South Africa, the DRC, Tanzania and Zambia have experienced declined performance in recent years, while Zimbabwean prospects have shown modest signs of recovery from their previous near collapse.
The Survey authors further observe:
 
"Africa's average score has not improved in the last 4 years. The African average went down to 40.5 from 41.8. However, Botswana continues to perform strongly. Its score went up to 74 this year from 66.5 last year. Namibia is also made good progress in this year's survey, moving up to 57.9 from 49.2 last year. DRC (Congo) continues its decline down to 7.8 from 18.9 last year. This drop likely reflects the un certainty created by the nationalization and revision of contracts by the Kabila government."
 
Table B - Fraser Institute Ranking of African Mining Jurisdictions 2010/11 -
Jurisdiction                     Score
1. Botswana                     74.0
2. Burkina Faso                 66.3
3. Mali                              58.2
4. Namibia                        57.9
5. Niger                            47.9
6. Ghana                          45.1
7. Guinea                         40.2
8. Zambia                        34.9
9. Tanzania                      32.4
10. South Africa               23.4
11. Zimbabwe                  22.4
12. Madagascar                15.6
13. D.R. Congo                07.8
 
Survey backgroundSince 1997, the Fraser Institute has conducted its annual survey of metal mining and exploration companies to assess how mineral endowments and public policy factors such as taxation and regulation affect exploration investment. Survey results represent the opinions of executives and exploration managers in mining and mining consulting companies operating around the world. The survey now covers 79 jurisdictions around the world. The idea to survey mining companies about how government policies and mineral potential affect new exploration investment came from a Fraser Institute conference on mining held in Vancouver, Canada, in the fall of 1996. The comments and feedback from the conference showed that the mining industry was dissatisfied with government policies that deterred exploration investment. Since many regions around the world have attractive geology and competitive policies, and given the increasing opportunities to pursue business ventures globally, many conference participants expressed the view that it was easier to explore in jurisdictions with attractive policies than to fight for better policies elsewhere. The Fraser Institute thus launched the survey to examine which jurisdictions provide the most favourable business climates for the industry, and in which areas certain jurisdictions need to improve.