Volume 3-13 Abstract


	View full article

	"Key Issues Of Mining Law: A Brief Comparative Survey As A Background Study For The Reform Of Mining Law", By DR. MIRIAN KENE OMALU and THOMAS W. WAELDE The reform of mining law (and other laws related to mining investment: investment, foreign exchange, customs, land-use, planning and environmental legislation) is a principal instrument of revitalising a mining industry. This is especially so where a country's mining industry has suffered from stagnation and a lack of policy attention. The legal framework is one of the factors which constitutes the overall investment regime which investors take into account when making the investment decision. The other key factors include, in particular, the geological attractiveness, considerations about the cost of extraction, processing and shipping as well as general issues of political and institutional risk. While a reform of the legal framework is in most cases necessary to revitalise a stagnating mining industry, it is not sufficient. Factors of geology (both geological endowment and exploration work done), of infrastructure impacting on the cost functions and in particular political and institutional risk perceptioplay a major role, often of greater weight than legal principles and technicalities.While such other factors are partly outside the control of government, or only subject to long-term government policies as positively perceived by the international mining industry, mining law - and institutional - reform is often the first step in a sequence of policies leading to a revitalisation of this industry. If properly designed, effectively implemented and well received by the industry (both national and international), mining law reform can have an important public relations effect. This signals the government's consistent policy of revitalising the industry and of adapting to international mining industry standards in creating a legal, fiscal and institutional framework under which international and national investors can expect to commit their risk capital in relative comfort and security. Note: This publication is available for sale from the CEPMLP Information Service, look here: CP9/98