30 Minerals Council of Australia The Investment Attractiveness score column 5 is an average of the P olicy P erception score and the Best Practices Mineral P otential score The P olicy P erception score column 6 is an indicator of how attractive government policies a r e f r o m t h e perspective of an exploration m a n a g e r T h e B e s t Practices Mineral P otential score column 7 is a measure of mineral potential given best policy practice a world class regulatory environment highly competitive taxation no political risk or uncertainty and a fully stable mining regime Higher score for each measure are better than lower scores On each of these measures Australia Canada and the United States score very highly While Australia scores well compared to most of the top 10 producers it does not score well compared to Canada The Canadian approach is highlighted by the F raser Institutes current mineral potential scores shown in table 12 The current mineral potential score relates to actual policies as opposed to best practice policies Canadian mining policy at least in Saskatchewan scores better than South Australia and the Northern T erritory It is also instructive to examine the gap between the Best Practices Mineral P otential scores and the current mineral potential scores in essence this difference measures the scope for policy improvement T able 13 shows the difference for Canada Saskatchewan Northern T erritory and South Australia While historically the Northern T erritory and Saskatchewan compare somewhat favourably South Australia shows scope for improvement T o the extent that the bulk of Australian uranium is mined in South Australia there is a substantial opportunity for South Australia to beneft from closing this gap T able 14 explores possible explanations for that gap N o r t h e r n T erritory and South Australia do not s c o r e a s w e l l as Canada Saskatchewan on encouraging investment and often score worse on being a mild deterrent and sometimes even on being a strong deterrent This suggests there is potential beneft in regulatory reform be it in reducing uncertainty or environmental and other duplication as well as land access reform which closes the gap between Australia and Canada 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Kazakhstan 032 032 031 032 038 Canada 078 070 072 069 075 Australia SANT 068063 065060 065058 058062 054056 Niger 014 013 040 038 042 Namibia 055 045 050 045 055 Russian F ed 022 017 040 030 030 United States 054 062 061 060 066 China 009 016 030 030 033 T able 12 Current mineral potential scores 20102014 General Rule Areas where scores are higher represent jurisdictions that are more conducive to mining Source Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies