Above-Ground Risk Country Ratings for Mining
The objective of the Frontier Strategy Above Ground Risk (AGR) ratings is very simple:
to provide mining companies with an objective measure of the above-ground risk faced by the industry in the countries where it does business.
Given the exposure of the mining industry to above-ground risks, the Frontier Strategy Group believes that it is critical for the mining industry to have its own reliable rankings of above-ground risk that take into account the unique challenges faced by the industry.
Our Above-Ground Risk Framework evaluates countries according to the following categories of above-ground risks:
| Geo-Political Risk |
Regulatory & Business Climate Risk |
Environmental Risk |
Social Risk |
| Government Stability |
Security of Title and Contract Enforceability |
Environmental Oversight and Regulations |
Level of Community Opposition in Mining Areas |
| Regional Developments and Trends |
Bureaucracy and Permitting |
Environmental Legacy Issues |
NGO Activism: Domestic and International |
| Level of Government Control |
Regulatory Development and Transparency |
Level of International Scrutiny on Environmental Issues |
Level of Social and Ethnic Unrest |
| Security |
Corruption |
Existence or Emergence of Protected Areas |
Health Standards |
| Government Attitude Toward Foreign Investment |
Level of Government Intervention in the Economy |
Compliance Costs |
Level of Trust in Government |
View a detailed explanation of
the
different categories of risks » |
Why is it important for the mining industry to have its own ratings for above-ground risk?
- Above-Ground Risk for the mining industry is determined by a unique set of risk drivers including Geo-Political Risk, Regulatory/Business Climate Risk, Environmental Risk, and Social Risk.
- Traditional political risk indices are often inapplicable to the mining industry because they focus on such issues as regular elections and balance of payments which do not constitute the key criteria for guiding investment.
- As a result, countries often ranked as stable or improving by regular risk indices can be extremely challenging places to do business for mining companies and vice versa.
Learn more about ratings methodology.
