Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada president tells Canada Day
conference that investors should take care when selecting the countries in
which their mining investments are made

LONDON, Dec. 2 /CNW/ - The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) President Scott Jobin-Bevans cautioned investors at the Canada Day mining investment conference today to pay attention to country risk when making new mining investments because resource nationalism may be re-emerging.

Dr. Jobin-Bevans cited Australia's 40-per-cent resource super tax as one of several recent instances of resource nationalism. The Australian tax introduced earlier this year, led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd but was then brought back in a revised form by his successor.

"We know it's tempting, at a time when government debt is mounting and metal prices are rising, for some governments to try to grab an even higher proportion of the revenue from mining."  Jobin-Bevans said. "But we urge governments to remember that the cumulative effect of these unreasonable tax hikes will be to push up world prices and slow global growth."

From the industry's perspective, although these taxes are usually introduced when prices are climbing, governments are reluctant to remove them when the cycle reverses and prices fall, he said.

Jobin-Bevans noted that the Fraser Institute's annual Survey of Mining Companies, which includes country risk as one of the measures in its ranking of the best to worst jurisdictions for mining, identifies five Canadian provinces and territories in the Top 10 jurisdictions.

Dr. Jobin-Bevans' presentation is available at www.pdac.ca.

About the PDAC:
The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is a national association representing the mineral exploration and development industry.  Its 7,000 individual and corporate members are involved in the exploration, discovery and development of new mines and new wealth.  The association's convention is the world's largest annual gathering of the mineral industry.  PDAC 2011 will be held March 6-9 in Toronto.

For further information:

Scott Jobin-Bevans
President, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada
[email protected]

Saley Lawton
Director, Communications, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada
416.362.1969 ext 225
[email protected]