The top three scorers in the Fraser Survey were Quebec, Wyoming, and Nevada. The bottom three positions were Venezuela, Ecuador, and Guatemala. Botswana ranked 18th overall, out of the 71 jurisdictions surveyed this year, with the highest score of any African nation, and second only to Chile in Latin America. This ranking placed Botswana above such favorable mining jurisdictions as Western Australia, Spain, New South Wales, British Columbia, Queensland, Ireland, Arizona, Mexico, and Peru. In fact, on a country by country basis, using the best jurisdiction within a country as the score for that country, Botswana ranked 7th out of 41 countries surveyed, behind Canada, United States, Chile, Sweden, Finland and Australia. A second index, intended to factor in mineral prospectiveness, raises the ranking for Botswana to 17th, out of 71 jurisdictions, and still most attractive in Africa.

Hana Mining’s President, Peter Wilson commented as follows:

“Hana Mining continues to receive strong support by the federal and local governments as well as the people of the local communities surrounding our Ghanzi Copper-Silver Project in Botswana. We are committed to working with all of our stakeholders as we endeavour to develop the Ghanzi Project into Africa’s premier copper-silver deposit. The Fraser Survey result for 2009 is pleasing, in that it confirms our belief in the quality of the investment climate in Botswana.”

About the Fraser Survey

The Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies was sent to approximately 3,000 exploration, development, and other mining-related companies around the world. Several mining publications and associations also helped publicize the survey. The survey represents responses from 658 of those companies. The rankings, formed from mineral resource company responses to specific questions, consider the full range of risk profiles for various countries, including existing business and environmental regulations, mineral rights, regulatory duplication and inconsistencies, taxation, uncertainty concerning native land claims and protected areas, infrastructure, socioeconomic agreements, political stability, labor issues, geological database, and security. The companies participating in the survey reported exploration spending of US$3.4 billion in 2008 and of US$3.02 billion in 2007. Thus, survey respondents represent 24 percent of total global nonferrous exploration of US$14.4 billion in 2008 and 30 percent of US$9.99 billion in 2007 as reported by the Metals Economics Group.