The Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies was sent to approximately 4,100 exploration, development, and other mining-related companies world-wide. The survey represents responses from 742 of those companies, which has provided sufficient data to evaluate 96 jurisdictions.

The survey responses have been tallied to rank provinces, states, and countries according to the extent that public policy factors encourage or discourage investment. Finland had the highest Policy Potential Index (PPI) score of 95.5. Along with Finland, the top 10 ranked jurisdictions are Sweden, Alberta, New Brunswick, Wyoming, Ireland, Nevada, Yukon, Utah, and Norway. The 10 least attractive jurisdictions for investment based on the PPI rankings are (starting with the worst): Indonesia, Vietnam, Venezuela, DRC (Congo), Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Guatemala, Philippines, and Greece.

For the first time since 2006/2007, no Canadian jurisdiction ranked first in the survey. Both Quebec and Saskatchewan dropped out of the top 10 in the rankings, to 11th and 13th respectively.

The companies participating in the survey reported exploration spending of US$6.2 billion in 2012.