Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (The JORC Code)

The Code is a required minimum standard for Public Reporting. JORC also recommends its adoption as a minimum standard for other reporting. Companies are encouraged to provide information in their Public Reports which is as comprehensive as possible.

Public Reports include but are not limited to: company annual reports, quarterly reports and other reports to Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchanges, or as required by law. The Code applies to other publicly released company information in the form of postings on company web sites and briefings for shareholders, stockbrokers and investment analysts. The Code also applies to the following reports if they have been prepared for the purposes described in Clause 5: environmental statements; Information Memoranda; Expert Reports, and technical papers referring to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves.

For companies issuing concise annual reports, or other summary reports, inclusion of all material information relating to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves is recommended. In cases where summary information is presented it should be clearly stated that it is a summary, and a reference attached giving the location of the Codecompliant Public Reports or Public Reporting on which the summary is based.

It is recognised that companies can be required to issue reports into more than one regulatory jurisdiction, with compliance standards that may differ from this Code. It is recommended that such reports include a statement alerting the reader to this situation. Where members of The AusIMM and the AIG are required to report in other jurisdictions, they are obliged to comply with the requirements of those jurisdictions. The term ‘regulatory requirements’ as used in Clause 5 is not intended to cover reports provided to State and Federal Government agencies for statutory purposes, where providing information to the investing public is not the primary intent. If such reports become available to the public, they would not normally be regarded as Public Reports under the JORC Code (see also guidelines to Clauses 19 and 37). Reference in the Code to ‘documentation’ is to internal company documents prepared as a basis for, or to support, a Public Report.

It is recognised that situations may arise where documentation prepared by Competent Persons for internal company or similar non-public purposes does not comply with the JORC Code. In such situations, it is recommended that the documentation includes a prominent statement to this effect. This will make it less likely that non-complying documentation will be used to compile Public Reports, since Clause 8 requires Public Reports to fairly reflect Exploration Results, Mineral Resource and/or Ore Reserve estimates, and supporting documentation, prepared by a Competent Person.

While every effort has been made within the Code and Guidelines to cover most situations likely to be encountered in Public Reporting, there may be occasions when doubt exists as to the appropriate form of disclosure. On such occasions, users of the Code and those compiling reports to comply with the Code should be guided by its intent, which is to provide a minimum standard for Public Reporting, and to ensure that such reporting contains all information which investors and their professional advisers would reasonably require, and reasonably expect to find in the report, for the purpose of making of a reasoned and balanced judgement regarding the Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves being reported.