Miners face big obstacles in Myanmar

By Clementine Wallop
Wall Street Journal 

Clive Donner

A lack of basic infrastructure and a daunting regulatory landscape are among the obstacles to investing in Myanmar’s alluring mining sector, fund managers said this week.

Concerns about government stability and political risk, as well as a shortage of skilled workers, have also given potential investors pause, they said.

“The issue isn’t whether the assets are there — it’s that the risk-reward ratio is there,” Clive Donner, managing director of investment firm LinQ Group, told delegates at the Myanmar Mining Investment Forum 2012.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has certainly got investors’ attention, though. They are eager to access the country’s vast and largely untapped mineral wealth, following the end of decades of military rule in 2011 and the subsequent lifting of most international sanctions.

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