The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced a proposal to adopt CRIRSCO-compliant reporting standards for U.S. companies.

CRIRSCO (the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards) has been lobbying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt CRIRSCO reporting standards for many years.  JORC is the model on which CRIRSCO standards has been based.  CRIRSCO reporting standards are currently in official use in Australia, Canada, South Africa, throughout Europe, Brazil, Chile, Russia, and Mongolia.

The SEC, to date, has permitted public reporting of ore reserves only by U.S. listed companies under Industry Guide 7.  In the SEC announcement, the Commission stated that the “proposed revisions are intended to provide investors with a more comprehensive understanding of a registrant’s mining properties, which should help them (investors) make more informed investment decisions”.  “The proposed revisions would also modernize the Commission’s disclosure requirements and policies for mining properties by aligning them with current industry and global regulatory practices and standards”.  SEC Guide 7 would be rescinded under the proposal.

The Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) has had a CRIRSCO compliant code for Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve reporting in place for a number of years, but adherence to the code was not possible for public reporting due to SEC requirements.

This comes as U.S. mining companies have said their international competitors already report their potential reserves, which help investors to value a firm and have sought to fix this disadvantage.

U.S. National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich lauded the move for “recognizing this problem by aligning our material resource reporting with those of other mining regions.”

The proposal will also potentially benefit Australian and Canadian companies that are also listed on U.S. exchanges by simplifying their annual reporting requirements.

The SEC will also seek comment from the public on whether it should require companies to provide investors with a more-detailed discussion on how they are planning to manage greenhouse gas emissions and workforce health, safety and their well-being.

The SEC will seek comments for two months and will go through a vote on the measures ahead of implementation.