The Fraser Institute has released its latest Survey of Mining Companies last week. This international survey is conducted annually by the Toronto based institute. It assesses the attractiveness of a particular region to mine investors and operators. The ranking of South Africa fell this year amongst the 79 major mining regions to position 67.
The previous year has seen it being ranked 61 out of 72 regions which in itself was a drop from its 49th rank out of 71 in the year 2008. The African National Congress Youth League’s repeated and aggressive promotion of a nationalization of all operating mines in the country has contributed to this drop in rankings.
There are also other factors such as the dispute over a major iron ore mining right that is currently in court. The six month moratorium on accepting and granting new prospecting rights is also a viable factor that contributed to the drop. Neighboring Botswana has placed 14th amongst the jurisdictions and 7th in the nations surveyed.
The Mineral Resources Minister for South Africa, Susan Shabangu had said in June last year that they had set a target for South Africa to improve the negative perceptions of its regulatory framework, from the current Fraser Institute level of 61 out of 72 countries to feature within the top quartile by 2014. The Department of Mineral Resources did not comment on the latest survey.