TORONTO - After three years at the top, Quebec has fallen to fourth in the Fraser Institute's annual Survey of Mining Companies. Alberta has moved into first place on the list of the best places in the world for mineral exploration and development. Nevada holds second place, and Saskatchewan is third. Rounding out the remainder of the top 10 jurisdictions are Finland, Utah, Sweden, Chile, Manitoba and Wyoming.
The bottom 10 scores went to Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Wisconsin, Madagascar, India, Guatemala, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela, and Honduras. Ecuador, the Philippines, Mongolia, and California, which were among the worst-ranked jurisdictions in the 2009-10 survey, managed to climb out of the bottom 10 this year.
The Fraser survey of mining companies for 2010-11 is based on the opinions of mining executives representing 494 mineral exploration and development companies on the investment climate of 79 jurisdictions around the world.
The survey also revealed that the worldwide economic turnaround has created optimism in the mining sector. More than three quarters of survey respondents said they expected to increase their exploration budgets in 2011. The companies participating in the survey reported exploration spending of US$2.43 billion in 2010 and US$1.86 billion in 2009.
The complete survey is available as a free PDF download at http://www.FraserInstitute.org/research-news/research/display.aspx?id=17302.