Ranking according to attractiveness of mining policies - The ranking is essentially a composite index that measures the effects on exploration of government policies including uncertainty concerning the administration, interpretation, and enforcement of existing regulations; environmental regulations; 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 third column ranks according to whether or not a jurisdiction’s mineral potential under the current policy environment encourages or discourages exploration. Obviously this takes into account mineral potential, meaning that some jurisdictions, which rank high in the policy ranking but have limited hard mineral potential, will rank lower in the mineral potential, while jurisdictions with a weak policy environment but strong mineral potential will do better. This third column is important since "good policies" are of little use if little resources can be expected to be retrieved.