The British Columbia Securities Commission (“BCSC”) has recently completed a three-month consultation period during which it held focus groups to identify issues and possible revisions to National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”). The project, which is being led by the BCSC, was initiated by the Canadian Securities Administrators in the response to a number of industry and regulatory concerns that have arisen since NI 43-101 was introduced in 2001.

It is expected that the drafting of the proposed changes will occur during Fall 2009 with a target date of publishing for a 90-day comment period in Spring 2010. The revised NI 43-101 is scheduled to take effect in June 2011.

The revisions that are expected to be made to NI 43-101 include:

• reducing the burden of consents of qualified persons to confirm that the issuer is responsible for N1 43-101 related disclosure;
• extending the scope of NI 43-101 to include website and third party disclosure in the areas of resources, reserves and economic analysis disclosure;
• updating the list of accepted foreign (professional) associations;
• expanding the list of technical report triggers to include a production decision;
• confirming that no economic analysis is required for historical estimates and exploration targets;
• providing broader, more flexible rules for the disclosure of historical estimates; and
• correcting the technical report form to fix various inconsistencies.

It is hoped that these revisions will reduce the regulatory burden to issuers and close several regulatory gaps and loopholes.

If you have had experience with NI 43-101 and have suggestions for amendments to that instrument, contact Jonathan Lotz (jcl@cwilson.com) of Clark Wilson’s Corporate Finance / Securities Group who will coordinate a response to the proposed amendments on behalf of Clark Wilson and its clients.