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Albania : Mining Sector Reform, Restructuring and Future ProspectsThis report provides a concise overview of the current situation of the mining sector in Albania. It evaluates the major events that took place in the last two decades (especially regarding the privatization process), and examines its governance, overarching policies and its legal frameworks that have guided the sector development. Having identified the weaknesses and difficulties that the sector faces, the report then suggests an outline for a comprehensive reform program. The main findings in this regard are related to: improving sector governance; improving regulatory effectiveness; strengthening the technical capacities; addressing environmental and social legacy, and community benefit sharing issues; and sustaining sector growth through sector promotion. The report also summarizes an evaluation of the mineral legal and regulatory environment, in order to inform an overall reform strategy and to identify commodities and/or resource areas of particular interest going forward, 'low hanging fruit' that might offer new growth opportunities. The overall conclusion of the report is that sector reform should emphasize new Greenfield resource potential through generative exploration by smaller and medium-sized international 'junior' mining companies. New resource development will be undertaken within a strengthened governance framework reinforced by a competitive, transparent, stable, non-discretionary regulatory regime. Although now highly fragmented, existing operations will be improved with the introduction of new operations performing to international good practice. Additionally, the private sector should be enabled to consolidate license holdings under improved regulatory enforcement that prevents licenses being held for speculation without intention to undertake meaningful investments that will result in development.
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Sector Licensing StudiesThis report is intended to provide
 guidance on best practices in mining licensing, based on
 examples from low, middle and high income countries in
 Africa, Asia, North America, and South America. It is not a
 'how-to guide' or a licensing implementation
 toolkit, but rather identifies certain common features of
 successful mining licensing regimes worldwide that other
 national or sub-national jurisdictions might usefully
 incorporate in new mining laws and regulations or revisions
 or existing ones. The case studies and other examples of
 good and bad practice are intended to provide a
 cross-section by geography and by income level, and they
 demonstrate that the prevalence of good and bad practices is
 not simply a function of income level. Tanzania, one of the
 poorest countries in the world, has in many respects a
 better licensing regime than either South Africa or the U.S.
 State of Wisconsin. In considering these complex issues, it
 has proven difficult to confine the discussion purely to
 questions of licensing. Discussion of licensing invariably
 invokes reference to overall policy and investment climate
 issues, environmental protection, labor law, taxation,
 national and sub-national jurisdiction, land tenure, and
 much more. This report makes no attempt to address all of
 these in detail but refers to them in reference to their
 interactions with and effect on, licensing itself. Far more
 detailed research on mineral policy, taxation, investment
 climate, and other issues has been carried out, some of it
 referred to in this report and cited in the footnotes and bibliography.
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Republique Democratique du Congo - La Bonne Gouvernance dans le Secteur Minier Comme Facteur de CroissanceThis study examines the mining sector's potential to contribute to economic growth with governance in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the past, mining has been the main engine of the Congo economy. But the revenues and other benefit streams generated by the sector over the years have not been used in a wise or sustainable fashion, largely due to key problems with sector governance. During the past ten years of civil war and conflict, flagship industrial mining declined substantially, and informal and artisanal mining expanded significantly. Now that peace has returned to most of the country and a new democratically elected Government is in place, the potential for the mining sector to contribute to economic growth is excellent. However, achieving growth with governance depends on three principal internal and external factors. The first of these, international commodity prices, is largely out of the Government's control. The second factor, political stability, is clearly critical to growth of the sector; however, a detailed discussion of this factor is outside the scope of this study. The third factor, rent-seeking culture, is at the heart of the challenge that the Government must overcome to ensure sustained sector growth with good governance. The probable future decline and fluctuation of commodity prices has several implications for the mining sector in DRC. First, the amount of investment funding available for minerals exploration and investment falls or rises in tandem with the commodity prices. During the first quarter of 2008 there has already been a significant fall-off in the amount of funding for smaller companies in the international exchanges, due in part to the financial turbulence in the markets. This fall-off in investment funding could be exacerbated further by a significant downturn in commodities prices. Second, producing companies will generate lower revenues, and the government will have a consequent decline in fiscal receipts. Third, companies will face pressure to maximize their economies of scale, generally by increasing through-put in order to meet fixed costs. At the same time, because of lower sales revenues, companies will be forced to reduce operating costs, often by cutting staff and social services. Fourth, lower commodity prices will have a direct effect on the artisanal producers of mineral commodities, whose day-to-day dependence on the amounts earned in the mines renders them highly vulnerable to fluctuations.