A resource statement looks the same whether it is bulletproof or fiction: numbers, tables, a confident headline. But lenders, partners and regulators do not read the headline — they read the method. After years of evaluating properties across the region, here is what separates a resource a bank will lend against from one that will not survive the first day of due diligence.
The five things a credible evaluation always has
- ✓Drilling density that matches the confidence claimed. Inferred, indicated and measured are not adjectives — they are statements about spacing. If the spacing does not support the category, nothing else matters.
- ✓QA/QC you can audit. Standards, blanks, duplicates and umpire labs — with the results reported, not just the process described.
- ✓An honest geological model. Domaining, variography and estimation choices explained — including the ones that reduce the tonnage.
- ✓Reasonable assumptions. Cut-off grades, prices, recoveries and dilution that a competent person would defend out loud.
- ✓A named, accountable author. Signed by a competent person under a recognised code — with their reputation attached.
How to spot a bad one quickly
Ask three questions. Who did the drilling — and can we see the raw logs? Where is the metallurgy — because a resource without recovery test work is a rumour with a spreadsheet. What did the last model change — a resource that grows every year without new drilling is being modelled, not discovered.
Be equally suspicious of evaluation that is too good in the other direction: projects under-stated by a cautious team are as common as over-stated ones, and the market rewards correction either way.
Why this matters commercially
The resource statement is the foundation of every number that follows — mine plan, capex, valuation, lender case. Errors do not stay in the geology department; they arrive in the boardroom three years later, at the worst possible moment. Doing the evaluation properly is not conservatism. It is the fastest route to a financeable project.
At Im Mining, economic resource determination is the core of what we do — exploration, definition and evaluation with the engineering discipline to take it into production. If you are evaluating a property (or evaluating someone else's statement), we are happy to talk it through.