CRIRSCO* in conjunction with the Russian Federal Government State Commission on Mineral Reserves (FGU GKZ) have released a consultation draft of the GKZ – CRIRSCO Handbook which contains guidelines on alignment of Russian minerals reporting standards and the CRIRSCO Template. The document has been posted on the CRIRSCO and PERC websites for public comment.

PERC has been managing the CRIRSCO-GKZ working group on harmonization of Russian and international minerals reporting systems. The deadline for consultation submissions is 31 May, 2010. Publication of a final version is provisionally planned for 31 July, 2010. All submissions should be sent to crirsco-gkz@vmine.net.

The purpose of the guidelines is to provide the user with a method by which mineral resource and reserve estimates prepared by Russian companies in accordance with the Russian Federation classification system, can be reported in accordance with the reporting standards of countries within the "CRIRSCO family", i.e. to provide the user with a conversion procedure from Russian information on reserves and resources into the CRIRSCO Template classification. Any mineral resource or reserve estimates published under the CRIRSCO framework (i.e. any of the CRIRSCO aligned reporting standards) must be signed off by a Competent Person. This is equally true for any estimates converted from the Russian classification.

The Competent Person is responsible for any estimate that is reported as a result of a conversion from Russian standards. It is therefore one of the tasks of the Competent Person who signs such a report to verify the whole range of inputs to the estimates, including the credentials and methods of the person or persons responsible for producing and approving the Russian classified estimates.

These guidelines have been prepared jointly by GKZ and CRIRSCO on the basis of a comparison of the principles by which estimates of mineral resources and reserves are defined and classified in the Russian system and in the CRIRSCO system, and more specifically on the basis of a comparison of the definitions of categories of mineral resources and reserves defined in these systems.

Web links:

·        www.crirsco.com

·        www.percreserves.com

*CRIRSCO is the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards and includes JORC (Australasia), SAMREC (SouthAfrica), PERC (Europe), CIM (Canada), SME (USA), and Comision Minera (Chile).