National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) is a rule
developed by the Canadian Securities
Administrators (CSA) and administered by the
provincial securities commissions that governs
how issuers disclose scientific and technical
information about their mineral projects to the
public. It covers oral statements as well as
written documents and websites. It requires that
all disclosure be based on advice by a
"qualified person" and in some circumstances
that the person be independent of the issuer and
the property.
A qualified person (QP) as defined in NI 43-101
as an individual who:
a) is an engineer or geoscientist with at
least five years of experience in mineral
exploration, mine development or operation
or mineral project assessment, or any
combination of these;
b) has experience relevant to the subject
matter of the mineral project and the
technical report; and
c) is a member in good standing of a
professional association.
NI
43-101, together with its Companion Policy
43-101CP and Form 43-101F1 Technical Report can
be downloaded from the
Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) website (http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/Regulation/Rulemaking/Current/rrn_part4_index.jsp)
. You will need to scroll down the page to
43-101, 43-101CP and 43-101 F1 Standards of
Disclosure for Mineral Projects and then
view/download the files from the appropriate
links there.
Laymen definition of standard categories of
resources:
-
Proven & Probable (P&P):
These are bankable mining reserves –
basically Measured and Indicated resources
with established commercial value. This is
what most producers actually mine.
-
Measured & Indicated (M&I):
These higher-confidence categories have been
sufficiently drilled to establish their
geometry and continuity reasonably well.
-
Inferred:
The lowest-confidence category, based on
just enough drilling to outline the
mineralization. In many cases, Inferred
resources (as the name suggests) are really
just guesses at what might actually be
there.