Regulator Guidance On Preliminary Economic Assessments Expected Soon

As discussed last week, I recently attended the 2012 Mine Accounting & Reporting Update conference in Toronto. Of the range of topics covered at the conference, staff of the Ontario Securities Commission also had occasion to highlight issues arising in connection with the use of preliminary economic assessments (PEAs).

Prior to the implementation of the amendments to National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) last June ( we discussed the amendments in an earlier blog post), a "preliminary assessment" was defined to be an assessment as to economic viability undertaken at an early stage in a project, "prior to the completion of any preliminary feasibility study". The principle was, as it has always been, that an issuer would use a scoping study or PEA to provide initial indications as to economic viability, but not to tack on extra information that should be included within a preliminary feasibility study (PFS) or