Introduction

Publication of the Mining Journal World Risk Report (feat.MineHutte ratings) is the culmination of more than 18 month’s work from concept to commitment to planning and, now, delivery. It is also the natural evolution of the ResourceStocks World Risk Survey – launched some 25 years ago – into a sophisticated product, more in keeping with the Mining Journal brand.

The report includes our Investment Risk Index, which is a robust system for rating jurisdictions across multiple metrics covering the Legal, Governance, Social, Fiscal and Infrastructure risk baskets. It is weighted toward hard, established risk-related indices but also includes perceived risk, which comes from the findings of a refocused World Risk Survey (weighting: 80/20). By rooting the system in hard numbers, we have produced ratings more resilient to manipulation, bias and large, year-on-year swings than would be possible using a purely survey-driven system.

The Investment Risk Index presents more than 3,600 aggregated and created data points across 85 jurisdictions. Some 17,000 words of analysis and discussion, along with almost 5,000 words of thought leadership script have been compiled around that data. The General Risk section of the greater report covers geographically indiscriminate Business and Operating risks and carries its only set of unique data accompanied by some 7,000 words of commentary.

“The overwhelming conclusion from this research is North America, and Canada specifically, is the safest place to invest resources capital,” Chris Cann, head of Aspermont’s recently launched and dedicated research unit, Aspermont Research & Intelligence, said.