JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) has expressed its concern about the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (Asic’s) guidelines on forward-looking statements, saying the disclosure rules would have “material ramifications” for the industry.
Amec CEO Simon Bennison said on Thursday that the Asic Information Sheet 214, published in April, had created “significant uncertainty” in the mining and mineral exploration sector.
Amec stated that the guidelines could have a number of “unexpected and material ramifications” for the Australian market, which would impact on market integrity and confidence, future investment potential and overall competitiveness.
Mining companies, particularly the junior sector, believe that the guidelines will restrict interest and financing in early stage projects.
“The guidelines contain clauses that will prevent companies from releasing important material information to shareholders and the market at crucial funding points in the overall mine cycle, as well as impeding them from the opportunity to raise capital when needed,” Amec reported.
Last month, Volt Resources had to withdraw an announcement about the prefeasibility study results for its graphite project, in Tanzania, in which it had outlined production scenarios for the Namangale project. Soon after the announcement was published, the ASX raised concern over the announcement, saying that it indicated, or amounted to, the reporting of a production target or forecast, which was not in accordance with the disclosure rules.
Asic has said that the guidelines only reiterated long-standing rules, according to The Australian. The newspaper quoted Asic's John Price as saying that the guidelines were important for Australia's market credibility.