Finland becomes most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment

A global survey has revealed that Finland has been named as the most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment in the world, beating out Canadian and Australian jurisdictions.

The Fraser Institute has released its Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2017, which is an attempt to assess how mineral endowments and public policy factors can affect exploration investment.

The top jurisdiction in the world for investment based on the Investment Attractiveness Index is Finland, which moved up from 5th place in 2016. Saskatchewan experienced a slight drop in its score in 2017 so dropped into second place after ranking first in the previous year.

 Nevada moved up from 4th in 2016 to 3rd in 2017. The Republic of Ireland ranked 4th this year, and Western Australia dropped from 3rd in 2016 to 5th in 2017. Rounding out the top 10 are Quebec, Ontario, Chile, Arizona, and Alaska.

“Rich mineral reserves, competitive taxes, efficient permitting procedures and certainty around environmental regulations will still attract significant investment— even with slumping commodity prices,” said Kenneth Green, senior director of the Fraser Institute’s energy and natural resource studies.

But despite the increase in jurisdictions such as Finland and Ireland, overall the general attractiveness of the industry’s investment had fallen.

In Australia, every jurisdiction received lower scores, indicating increasingly unattractive government regulations across the country.

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Western Australia ranked 5th overall, followed by Queensland (12) and South Australia (14). As a whole, Australia—which ranked as the most attractive region overall last year— has fallen to 2nd this year after Canada. The U.S. is the third most attractive region overall, followed by Europe

“Capital is fluid and one jurisdiction’s loss can be another’s gain because mining investors will flock to jurisdictions that have attractive policies,” Green said. “Sound regulatory regimes are an absolute must for policymakers who want to attract increasingly precious commodity investments.”