Arizona's mineral potential ranking soars in survey of best and worst places for mining

Arizona moved from 31st to 15th in the world in the mining industry's assessment of our current mineral potential.  This is one of a host of results in the new "Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies that was sent to approximately 4,100 exploration, development, and other mining-related companies world-wide. The survey represents responses from 742 of those companies, which has provided sufficient data to evaluate 96 jurisdictions."

Three US states, Wyoming, Nevada, and Utah, are in the top 10 jurisdictions in the world in terms of public policy factors that encourage or discourage investment.   The top factor cited for Utah is the quality of its geologic database.  Arizona is ranked 31st in quality of its geologic database.  Perhaps our project underway to digitize all the mining and mineral resource data for Arizona and put it online will have a similar impact on our standings. 
 

Arizona ranks 28^th out of 96 jurisdictions (nations, provinces, states) worldwide in how mining companies rank “public policy factors such as taxation and regulation affect exploration investment,”   and 40^th in “regulatory duplication and inconsistencies” (with higher numbers in this latter category indicating greater deterrent to investment).

The full report is available for free downloading at http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/mining-survey-2012-2013.pdf