The following excerpt was taken from the Fraser institue, international survey of mining companies. This was just released last week and it Ranks all the mining jurisdictions in the world and also tracks sentiment of mining executives: ( this didn't cut and paste well)
Miners appear to be more pessimistic about future
commodity prices, at least in comparison to the
heady optimism about mining prices in the recent
past. Miners are expect ing level or reduced prices
for almost all the commodities we examine: silver,
copper, diamonds, coal, zinc, nickel, potash, and
platinum. The exception is gold.
· Only 38 per cent thought gold prices would ei -
ther in crease by 10 per cent or less, or de cline
over the next two years; 53 per cent thought they
would in crease by 20 to 50 per cent, while 9 per -
cent ex pected in creases of more than 50
percent.
Re duced op ti mism is also re flected in in vest ment
in ten tions. Last year, 82 per cent of re spon dents ex -
pected to in crease their ex plo ra tion bud gets in
2011. This year, 68 per cent ex pected to in crease
their exploration budgets in 2012.