The British Columbia Securities Commission issued an investors alert on Mission Mining, a Nevada company that trades on the OTC Pink Sheets in the US, for reporting a resource estimate that claims to be compliant with National Instrument 43-101, a Canadian standard that includes rules on how to report resources.
“The report, posted on Mission Mining’s website, and the company’s related disclosure with respect to the purported mineral resource and value, does not comply with NI 43-101,”
BCSC writes in a Thursday investors alert
Claims of massive gold-silver resources are made in the report, said to be authored by a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 guidelines.
The report’s author, Vladimir Vizkozic, calculates several resources, categorized as measured and inferred, and estimates Mission’s Gold Star property in Nevada holds as much as 2.6 billion ounces silver and 370 million ounces gold.
To put that in context, such a resource, if valid, would dwarf Northern Dynasty’s Pebble gold-copper project, which is generally considered the biggest undeveloped gold project in the world. Pebble is said to host 57 million ounces gold in measured and indicated resources.
Mission’s resource claims are thin.
The report does not describe any drilling and, in terms of exploration results, only references six trench samples, with associated assays, and a 12 ton sample for the basis of the massive resource claim.
Oddly for a report outlining resources purported to be NI 43-101 compliant, Vizkozic acknowledges that the property has seen little exploration.
“An in-depth exploration of the subject property has not been undertaken, although throughout the property various test pits are visible,” he writes.
He also states, “To date, Mission Mining Company has not undertaken any drilling on the Gold Star property.”
NI 43-101 resource reports for a deposit the size Mission claims to hold, always describe extensive exploration results and also go into detail on methods used to justify a resource calculation. But these are almost entirely lacking in Mission’s purported NI 43-101 report.
The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) is clear on the level and quality of data needed to reach NI 43-101 standards for resources.
NI 43-101 Definitions “The estimate is based on detailed and reliable exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that are spaced closely enough to confirm both geological and grade continuity.”
the CIM states on its website.
Thus, for example, the latest measured and indicated resource for the Pebble deposit was based on 476 drill holes and 202,703 metres of drilling, among a slew of other data and methodological considerations, all of which is described in detail within a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate.