Chile moves up 3 notches in mining investment attractiveness survey

Chile remains the top ranked jurisdiction for mining in Latin America and climbed from 15th to 12th place in terms of investment attractiveness in the 2013-14 edition of the annual survey of mining companies carried out by Canada's Fraser Institute.

The index for investment attractiveness combines the policy perception index (PPI) and the mineral potential index. Chile's composite score was 76.5.

Chile slipped to 30th place from 23rd in the PPI, but ranked fourth in the mineral potential index, after Alaska, Western Australia and Nevada.

In Latin America, Mexico was ranked the second most attractive country for mining investment in 31st place with a score of 65.1, followed by Peru in 37th place with 63.1. Brazil fell from 44th to 51st while Colombia saw a sharp drop in investment attractiveness from 39th to 62nd place.

The lowest ranked countries in Latin America were Uruguay (112th place), Honduras (110th) and Venezuela (109th).

This year's survey included 112 jurisdictions compared to 96 last year. In Latin America, the additions were Nicaragua (ranked 94th) and Uruguay.

All of Argentina's provinces had lower scores in terms of investment attractiveness this year, with the exception of Salta which rose from 48th to 40th.

Globally, Western Australia was the highest ranked for investment attractiveness, followed by Nevada and Newfoundland & Labrador.

POLICY PERCEPTION INDEX

Chile scored 70.9 in the PPI, followed in Latin America by Mexico (56.5) and Peru (48.5). Argentina's Salta province had a score of 62.7, San Juan 49.6 and Jujuy 43.2.

The PPI index measures the effects of government policies such as the administration of mining and environmental regulations, regulatory duplication, the legal and tax regime, infrastructure, socio-economic conditions, trade barriers and political stability, among others.

Once again, Venezuela was the lowest ranked in the region at 111th (of 112) in 2013 due to lower infrastructure ratings, according to the Fraser Institute release. Last year it was in 94th place (of 96).

The Dominican Republic fell the most in Latin America from 60th place in 2012-13 to 97th in this year's survey, mainly reflecting lower ratings for trade barriers, the legal system and uncertainty surrounding the administration, interpretation and enforcement of existing regulations.

Panama improved its score the most and, with 50.6 points, climbed to 58th place from 63rd, reflecting better ratings on uncertainty of environmental regulations, and regulatory duplication and overlap.

Peru saw the second biggest improvement in performance as it moved up from 58th to 56th on better perceptions on availability of labor and skills, labor regulations and work disruptions.

The survey represents responses from 690 companies which reported exploration spending of US$4.6bn in 2012 and US$3.4bn in 2013.