The world today feels like a more risky – or at least more volatile – place than at any point in living memory for many in the mining sector.
At the macro level, business is faced with a Donald Trump-led US, international terrorism, Brexit and the potential disintegration of the European Union, and, most recently, the very real threat of nuclear war breaking out from the Korean Peninsula.
These headlining concerns have created great uncertainty over the prospects for global economic progress.
Against this backdrop, business leaders are grappling with volatility surrounding foreign exchange rates, access to capital, and the cost of frequent restructures necessary to comply with increasingly overbearing regulation.
Miners, of course, face their own suite of challenges specific to the industry, which usually relate to jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction changes in policy, infrastructure, and conflict.
In recent months alone, the industry has had to contend with a ban on gold concentrate exports from Tanzania; a wide-scale social and environmental interrogation in the Philippines that threatens to close much of the industry; and a combination of policy shifts (Indonesia) and industrial disputes (South America) that took out the world’s three largest copper mines.
It should be noted this volatility cuts both ways and, over a similar time frame, the industry has seen opportunities open up and threats dissipate.
Examples of this include a shift in thinking in the US related to business and environmental administration; the collapse of a campaign to increase royalties on major iron ore miners in Western Australia; and, though over a longer period, the pending implementation of improvements to Kazakhstan’s legal and fiscal mining framework.
Part of the heightened risk and volatility in the mining space can be put down to the stage in the cycle. Miners and investors are more cautious on the back of huge financial losses and the professional casualties scattered across the industry following the most recent bust.
But most stakeholders that Mining Magazine and it's sister title Mining Journal speak to do not feel this caution will recede significantly as we push into the next cyclical upswing. Put simply, mining has become an even riskier business in which to operate and invest.
This poses a challenge for decision makers at the head of mining businesses.
The ability to identify, acknowledge and manage risks is today paramount for the successful running of an explorer, developer or producer. It follows that technical competencies, though clearly fundamental in mining, have in some respects taken a backseat to risk management, which has become an increasingly important skill for mining executives and operational teams.
This is reflected in the attitudes of the investor community, which looks for proof of these skills when deciding where to place its cash.
The core function of Mining Journal is to provide information for industry participants to help them make better, more informed decisions and promote discussion around key issues. We also, where appropriate, hold a mirror up to industry participants so they can take a look at themselves and challenge the status quo in a bid to make improvements.
Risk management is arguably the most important issue facing mining at the moment and everything points to risk continuing to be a major challenge for the industry in years to come. As such, Mining Journal will this year launch an annual, worldwide risk report.
The report will incorporate a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction rating, methodically and scientifically compiled by combining ‘hard risk’ ratings with the ‘risk perception’, as gauged by a survey of our global mining audience. As well as providing a perception of jurisdiction-specific risk, the survey will canvas the industry on more general business and operating risks.
The Mining Journal World Risk Report has been designed to act as an authoritative tool for the industry.
In the first instance, it should help mining companies and investors better understand the threats associated with operating in specific jurisdictions. At the same time, it will provide a practical reference point for those jurisdictions interested in improving their appeal to the mining sector.
Further, it will provide a platform for the industry to discuss the fundamental challenge of risk management and the latest thinking in improving risk-management performance.
This will work best with a high level of industry participation and so we are encouraging explorers, developers, miners, investors and service providers to engage with us over the next three-to-four months as we build this report.
The first opportunity to do this will be through the World Risk Survey.
Taking the survey should not be overly time consuming, though we do ask respondents to give considered responses in order to generate the most useful end result possible.
To take the survey, please click here.
