CESR is proposing new disclosure rules for what is defined as a “mineral company”, to replace previous paragraphs 131-133 in CESR’s recommendations for the consistent implementation of the European Commission’s Regulation on Prospectuses.
In short the proposed rules addresses – among other issues - what should now be considered as a “mineral company”, the content of the competent persons report (“CPR”) and the qualifications of the competent person, that such a CPR report should only be required when doing an IPO (with some exceptions), that the previous requirement for a detailed cash flow forecast accompanied by an accountant’s opinion is disproportionately onerous and does not provide useful information and might be dropped. The new rules propose that pure exploration companies (with no intention to start production/mining) should also be considered as “mineral companies”, and therefore have to adhere to the proposed requirements. The proposed rules set out a list of specific classification standards that can be used (like fex “JORC”, “PRMS”, “the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate classification systems” and others).
The deadline for any contributions is 15 July 2010.