JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The high-ranking delegation from China, which is due to arrive in South Africa next Monday to undertake a three-week study of South Africa’s globally recognised mineral reporting codes, will be given insight, during their visit, into a proudly South African borehole logging system that is poised to go global.

“We have the best borehole logging database in the world in South Africa, which is now poised to go global. It has developed out of the South African mining industry, and in all of my work throughout the world, I haven't come across a better system than this,” said Matt Mullins, chairperson of Samcodes Standards Committee, which will host the 18-strong Chinese group from October 15 to November 3. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video).

The delegation, from the Mineral Resources and Reserves Evaluation Centre of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources (MRREC) in Beijing, has requested training in the practical application and management of South Africa’s meticulous reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and mineral reserves (Samrec), as well as exposure to the crucial role of the code in facilitating access to capital on stock exchanges.

Samrec code caters for everything from small mining companies to large mining companies and there are three major divisions of Samrec, one being exploration results and the other two being mineral resources and mineral reserves.

The visit is being undertaken ahead of China joining the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards (Crirsco), a 13-country group that subscribes to a common standard for resource reporting, mainly for investment purposes. China is set to become the fourteenth member of Crirsco, which provides far-reaching investor safeguards through its insistence on materiality, transparency, competency and responsibility.

MRREC hopes to learn from South Africa’s 25 years of code experience and, in particular, to understand the crucial role of the code in accessing capital markets.

The training includes commodity specific reporting, the geology of the Bushveld Complex and the Witwatersrand, public reporting by the award-winning African Rainbow Minerals, competent person reporting by Impala Platinum, a tour of the Impala Platinum mine in Rustenburg, public reporting of mine planning and operations, the role of consulting companies in competent person reporting, a lecture on private and public investments by Cadiz Corporate Solutions mining head Peter Major and the role of modelling and mine planning software in resource and reserve estimation.

On South Africa’s locally developed borehole logging system, Mullins commented: “It’s streets ahead of anything else I’ve seen. It has checks and balances built into it right at the beginning, when you input the data. You’re assured of clean data upfront.”

This is data on geological formations as well as qualities and assays, which is the foundation on which everything else is built.

“The integrity of the data is so important for the whole downstream process, from the resource modelling to mine planning, into the financial model, and so often we get that first step wrong. This system performs better than any other system I’ve seen,” Mullins added to Mining Weekly Online.

The Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) will be hosting the delegation for a day on the workings of the JSE, how South Africa’s Samcodes have been incorporated in their listings’ rules and how effective governance of the codes is assured through the JSE reader’s panel.

Following the delegation’s visit, Mullins will relocate to London to head up Arcelor Mittal’s global business excellence and capital allocation unit. This appointment comes against the background of the role he played in assisting with the development of a capital investment system for BHP after its merger with Billiton, and his leadership in designing and implementing productivity improvement at BHP.

As part of the agreement with Arcelor Mittal, his local company, Tecoma Strategies, which delivers consultancy services to the mining industry in orebody optimisation, resource evaluation and project development, will remain open and he will return to run it in two to three years’ time.