TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) this week called out a Nevada mining firm on its recently published statement declaring that the company had completed a Canadian National Instrument (NI) 43-101-compliant technical report that had estimated one of the company’s projects to host a significant amount of precious metals.

The BCSC on Thursday issued a warning to investors about Mission Mining, saying it had become aware that the Nevada-based company, with no apparent connection to British Columbia, or any jurisdiction in Canada, issued a news release last Thursday that claimed it had posted a compliant report on its website.

Mission Mining’s statements regarding the Gold Star project smacked of Bre-X Minerals-like disclosures meant to mislead investors, the regulator said.

The report allegedly confirmed a very large mineral resource containing gold and silver, which the company used to disclose a very large estimate of purported resource value.

“The BCSC is warning the public that Mission Mining has not filed a NI 43-101 report with the BCSC. The report posted on Mission Mining’s website, and the company’s related disclosure with respect to the purported mineral resource and value, does not comply with NI 43-101,” it warned.

Authored by one Vladimir Zivkovic of Zivkovic Geophysical Investigations, the press release reported that the report confirmed Mission’s Gold Star project, in western Nevada, to host a total compliant measured resource of 17.2-million ounces of gold and 121-million ounces of silver, located in the top 10 m of surface material across the 388.5 ha claims, totalling about $24.7-billion in value at current gold and silver prices.

Citing previous historical exploration estimates of the property, and in the technical report stating that Mission had not undertaken any exploratory drilling on the property, Mission in its press release said that Zivkovic had further estimated the total measured and inferred resources at Gold Star to be about 316.8-million ounces of gold and about 2.23-billion ounces of silver.

By comparison, Northern Dynasty Minerals’ Pebble project, in Alaska, was widely regarded to host one of the world’s largest undeveloped resources.

Estimates show that the Pebble deposit comprises measured and indicated resources of 5.94-billion tons, grading 0.78% copper equivalent and containing 55-billion pounds of copper, 67-million ounces of gold and 3.3-billion pounds of molybdenum. The deposit also has 4.84-billion tons of inferred resources, grading 0.53% copper equivalent and containing 26-billion pounds of copper, 40-million ounces of gold and 2.3-billion pounds of molybdenum.

Bre-X bought the Busang site, in Indonesia in March 1993, and in October 1995, had announced significant amounts of gold had been discovered, sending its stock price soaring.

Originally a penny stock, its stock price reached a peak at C$286.50 (split adjusted) in May 1996 on the TSX, with a total capitalisation of over C$6-billion. Bre-X Minerals collapsed in 1997, after the gold samples were found to be a fraud.

The BCSC explained that the NI 43-101 was a critical component in the disclosure requirements of mining companies that distributed securities in Canada. It had established standards for disclosure of scientific and technical information regarding mineral projects, and required that the disclosure was based on a technical report or other information prepared by or under the supervision of a qualified person.

“The BCSC recommends that investors in British Columbia exercise extreme caution when dealing with any company that purports to release a NI 43-101 technical report, but does not file the report with a securities regulator in Canada,” the commission warned.