The Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards (CRIRSCO) has informed us of the release of an update to its Beyond Inferred Position Paper (originally issued in 2010 and last updated in 2015). This paper addresses the classification and communication of mineralization that lies outside the current CRIRSCO Template’s defined categories of Mineral Resources and Reserves, particularly material that may be considered potentially viable but is presently non-economic or insufficiently explored.

CRIRSCO recognizes that situations exist where reporting of potential mineral assets that are not covered by the categories defined by the Template may be required and that different stakeholders, such as governments, may require reports on these additional categories. In addition, CRIRSCO acknowledges that it is common practice amongst mineral companies to maintain registers or inventories of such material for their strategic planning purposes. Such purposes include, for example, prioritizing exploration targets for future work and maintaining records of mineralized material that currently fails to meet requirements for public reporting but may do so in the future.

This paper is intended to expand on CRIRSCO’s views on material beyond inferred and to explain the relationship between the CRIRSCO-aligned reporting standards and other classification systems that categorize such material, in particular the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC). CRIRSCO encourages regulators, national reporting organizations (NROs), and professionals in the extractive industries to review this document and consider its implications for responsible reporting and future framework development.

CRIRSCO acknowledged the work done by Lynn Olssen (co-ordinator) and the other members of the Beyond Inferred Working Group in preparing this updated document.

For the benefit of PERC members, the CRIRSCO Beyond Inferred Position Paper has been posted on the PERC website and is available using the following link.

 

Edmund Sides and Mark Burnett (PERC representatives on CRIRSCO)

28th May 2025