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Mineral policy in MENA countries: the case of Jordan

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Abstract

The purpose of this study paper is to examine Jordan’s mineral development and investment policies. Mining policies that attract foreign investment must handle both traditional investor concerns and some new challenges. The paper delves deeply into issues such as a country’s geological, political, financial, regulatory, operational, fiscal, social, and environmental characteristics, as well as profit and marketing factors. After analyzing these criteria for Jordan, they were compared to the MENA region in order to provide insights into potential changes and improvements to both the MENA and Jordan mineral policies. International investors have not been drawn to Jordan’s mineral resource sector for a number of reasons, including—but not limited to—a lack of digitally available and accessible geological data, lack of access to finance exploration projects, an unfavorable legal and fiscal environment, lack of many of the best practices for transparency standards, and lack of awareness and promotion of Jordan’s mineral potential among international businesses. For Jordan to improve its standing in the world for investing in mining, it needs effective mining regulations, effective regulatory agencies, very lenient foreign investment laws, highly competitive tax system, enormous geologic potential, highly qualified personnel, exceptional local expertise and skills, modern infrastructure, and stable political and economic systems.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Source: World Economic Forum (2020)

Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Source: MEMR (2023)

Fig. 6

Source: Central Bank of Jordan (2023)

Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Source: JPMC (2022)

Fig. 9

Source: World Economic Forum (2020)

Fig. 10

Source: World Economic Forum (2020)

Fig. 11

Source: JPMC and APC (various) years

Fig. 12

Source: World Economic Forum (2017)

Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data and material will be available upon request.

Notes

  1. According to 2018’s mining law, governmental or private land will not be issued a prospecting permission, exploration license, or mining right unless the landowners agree. If the landowner declines to permit prospecting, exploration, discovery, or mining on his or her property, the Board of Commissioners, with Cabinet approval, may grant a prospecting permit, exploration license, or mining right if the public interest so requires and in exchange for fair compensation that the landowner and the holder of the license or right have mutually agreed upon. The cabinet may choose to expropriate land if a landowner declines to sell or lease it to the holder of a prospecting permit or mining right.

  2. No exploration license, prospecting license, or mining right permits the holder to survey, explore, or mine in holy places, ancient sites, railway lands, municipal regions, reservoirs, or land used for oil and sewage pipelines without the prior approval and supervision of the competent authorities.

  3. If the owner of an exploration license finds a mineral that is not listed in the license and notifies the Commission of his discovery, he will be issued a certificate of mineral discovery and will have priority to get the mining right within 2 years of the date of the certificate.

  4. Without the previous approval of the Commission, the license holder is not permitted to carry out any work outside of the region designated for him in the license’s coordinates (even if that area contains any mineral remnants, veins, or extensions).

  5. It is forbidden for the annual production quantity to fall below (25%) of the production quantity stated in the technical study for a period longer than 3 consecutive years during the license period. If this occurs, the mining license and right will be suspended until the situation is normalized, which could take up to 6 months. If this does not occur, the license will be automatically revoked.

  6. Although this approach is more economically effective than unit values based approach because it is a direct function of commodity prices, Lilford and Guj (2020) argued that it is relatively difficult to administer and audit and that because it is project specific, it may lead to cost allocation issues relating to assets that may be shared with other company projects.

  7. Egypt imposed a royalty of 5% for gold, 10% for phosphate, 6% for zinc, 9% for iron, 8% for copper, 9% for iron, and 18% for white sand.

  8. This depends on geographic areas identified in a “investment map” determined by Executive Regulations.

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Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, P.O. Box. (20), Ma’an, Jordan

    Rami Al Rawashdeh

  2. School of Business and Economics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

    Gary Campbell

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  1. Rami Al Rawashdeh
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  2. Gary Campbell
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Contributions

RAR: conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, discussion, writing of the original draft.

GC: conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, literature review, reviewing the entire text, both in terms of language and content.

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Correspondence to Rami Al Rawashdeh.

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Appendix

Appendix

Figure 14

Fig. 14
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Jordan’s standing among MENA countries on the most important categories for foreign investments

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Al Rawashdeh, R., Campbell, G. Mineral policy in MENA countries: the case of Jordan. Miner Econ 37, 121–147 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-024-00419-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-024-00419-0

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