ASX: New guidance on reporting exploration results

ASX’s February compliance update, the first for 2025, identifies the public reporting of exploration results as a focus area - in particular, the balanced reporting of exploration results and conditions for reporting metals equivalents.

This compliance update builds on ASX’s previous compliance updates relating to guidelines for reporting visual estimates and reporting exploration targets, and is also consistent with ASX’s recent proactive approach to enforcing compliance in this area of mining disclosures (with a significant number of ASX market announcements in this segment of the market requiring retraction or supplementation in the last six months).

Below we examine ASX's commentary and the implications for listed mining companies.

Key issues

The reporting of exploration results is significant to ASX (and the broader market), given exploration results represent a very high proportion of all ASX mining announcements (by number).

ASX’s February 2025 compliance update provides the following commentary and guidance in relation to its areas of focus:

• ASX has concerns with noting the best / highest grade assay results in the header* of an announcement, in circumstances where the headline result is either not representative of the suite of assays or is an anomalous result in the suite of assays

• In ASX’s view, this approach contravenes the JORC Code requirement for balanced reporting (i.e. not cherry-picking selected information) and the need to ensure representative reporting of both low and high grade results

• ASX has observed the increased use of metal equivalents by entities reporting exploration results (which are used to report polymetallic exploration results in terms of a single equivalent grade of one major metal) and reiterated the commentary in the JORC Code that reporting metal equivalents is not appropriate if metallurgical recovery information is not available or able to be estimated with reasonable confidence

• ASX notes that if an announcement of metal equivalents exploration results does not include assumed metallurgical recovery information, ASX will assume the implied metallurgical recovery information is 100% (and may require the entity to provide additional disclosure to set out the basis for this assumption (which must be reasonable) or otherwise require retraction).

*The ‘header’ of the announcement for this purpose is the title of the announcement as it appears on the ASX Market Announcement Platform (e.g. “High grade drilling results for Project X”).

Implications

ASX’s commentary on reporting exploration results reinforces the need to ensure public reporting of mining activities is appropriately balanced and not misleading (including in circumstances where the announcement otherwise addresses the technical content requirements of Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules and the JORC Code).

Whilst ASX does not prohibit the practice of reporting metals equivalents at the exploration stage, any reporting of metals equivalents at this stage would need to be closely assessed against the requirements of Clause 50 of the JORC Code (and the assumptions regarding metallurgical recovery factors clearly disclosed).

ASX has broad powers to require announcements to be corrected or retracted (and may suspend trading in the entity’s securities until appropriate corrective action is taken) and actively monitors compliance with the reporting requirements under Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules and the JORC Code (and requires announcements to be retracted, corrected or supplemented where non-compliance is identified).

ASX’s most recent compliance update follows earlier compliance updates relating to:

• competent person and cautionary statement requirements for reporting exploration results (08/24, click here); and
• the reporting estimates of mineralisation based only on visual observations (04/23, click here).

JORC Code updates

Separately, in August 2024 the JORC released an exposure draft of proposed updates to the JORC Code (with consulting closing on 31 October 2024). The exposure draft included a number of new reporting requirements in relation to ESG (particularly in relation to exploration results), reconciliation reporting for operating mines and expanded JORC Table 1 disclosure requirements; as well as amendments and further guidelines on the assessment of ‘reasonable prospects’, competent person requirements, and internal documentation requirements. If the exposure draft was adopted in its current form, the JORC Code updates would have a number of important practical implications for listed mining companies at all stages of the mining cycle.

Whilst the JORC is yet to provide an update to market participants following its receipt of the (relatively extensive) consultation feedback, the previous published timeline contemplated a final version of the revised JORC Code being published in early 2025 (with at least a 12-month transition period). The revisions to the JORC Code will require approval from ASX and ASIC, as well as Ministerial approval.

Please reach out to a member of our team if you'd like to discuss how you might be affected by the above.

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