NI 43-101
The disclosure standard to which every mining company listed on a Canadian exchange is subject. In full: National Instrument 43-101 — Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, made by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).
What it governs
NI 43-101 prescribes how a company may speak about its project. The core of it, in four points:
- Every scientific or technical statement — a drill result, a resource estimate, an economic calculation — must be the responsibility of a Qualified Person (QP).
- For material projects a technical report must be filed, publicly available through SEDAR+. It follows a fixed chapter structure under Form 43-101F1 — from sampling method through data verification to interpretation.
- The resource and reserve categories are not a matter of choice; they follow the CIM definition standards. See Inferred, indicated, measured.
- Certain disclosures — historical estimates, say, or the results of a PEA — carry prescribed cautionary language that may not be omitted.
Who counts as a Qualified Person
The requirements sit in the definitions section of the instrument, and they are narrower than the common shorthand — "five years' experience, member of a professional body" — suggests. A QP must meet all of the following:
- a university degree in geoscience or a relevant engineering discipline — or an equivalent qualification;
- at least five years of professional experience since graduating;
- experience relevant to the specific subject matter of the report: to the deposit type, to the activity being reported on, to the type of technical report;
- membership in good standing of a recognised professional organisation with disciplinary authority over the person.
The third point appears in no press release — and in practice carries the most weight. A distinguished specialist in epithermal gold veins is not a QP for a lithium brine: same person, same credentials, different subject. The fourth point, in turn, explains why the signature is worth anything at all. Behind it stands a professional licence that can be taken away.
Why any of this matters to an investor outside Canada
Because the standard is the reason one can believe the numbers of a Canadian junior in the first place. It came into being as a response to the Bre-X scandal of 1997, in which falsified drill samples supported a valuation running into billions of dollars. Before NI 43-101 there was no obligation to disclose sampling and chain of custody.
A drill result with no QP behind it and no documented chain of custody is not information today. It is advertising.
What applies elsewhere
The Australasian counterpart — Australia and New Zealand — is JORC, the South African one SAMREC, the European one PERC. NI 43-101 does not describe them as equivalent but as acceptable foreign codes. Under section 7.1 a technical report may use their definitions, but must then expressly reconcile every material difference against NI 43-101 and the CIM definitions.
The difference is practical: two reports under two codes are not readily comparable. The reconciliation belongs in the report — and where it is missing, it is not missing by accident.
Where the standard is misread
"NI 43-101 compliant" is not a seal of quality for the project. It means the disclosure follows the rules. It does not mean the project is economic, that the resource is mineable, or that the assumptions are realistic. A technically impeccable project can be entirely unprofitable — and the report will say so, in chapter 22.
The regulator does not review the content. It checks that the filing was made. Responsibility for the substance rests with the QP.
Independence attaches to the document, not to the report. The QP may be an employee of the company; that is the normal case. Whether an independent report is required is determined, under section 5.3, by the type of document being filed — a prospectus, an information circular, or the materials for an initial listing. For producing issuers, however, the exemptions in sections 5.3(2) to 5.3(4) reach a long way: even in cases that would otherwise require independence, they may use their own people. Anyone taking the numbers seriously therefore looks not at the class of report but at the QP's certificate at the end of the document. That is where it says who signed — and in what relationship that person stands to the company.
The report ages. Capital costs, energy prices and exchange rates from a 2019 report will not carry a 2026 calculation. There is no duty to update so long as the company makes no new material statements.
The press release is not the report. It may summarise — and in doing so it selects. The distance between the headline and chapter 14 is regularly the most interesting part of the reading.
How we work with it
We value no resource project without the full text of the technical report from SEDAR+ — the corporate presentation will not do. In every piece of analysis we state the date and stage of the report, the QP responsible, whether that person is independent — and, where the report was prepared under a foreign code, which one.
The full framework is set out under How we value resource companies.
Sources
- National Instrument 43-101 — Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Canadian Securities Administrators, consolidated British Columbia version (B.C. Reg. 86/2011), in particular the definition of "qualified person" and sections 5.3 and 7.1 — bclaws.gov.bc.ca
- CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, 10 May 2014 — bcsc.bc.ca
- CSA proposal to repeal and replace NI 43-101 and Form 43-101F1, published 12 June 2025, comment period to 10 October 2025. Position as at 11 August 2026: not in force.
Version 2 · 11 August 2026