Valuation of Mineral Resources in Selected Financial and Accounting Systems

The paper presents reviews of fundamental issues regarding valuation methodologies of mineral deposits: 1) recommended by mineral industry standards; 2) used for disclosures in financial statements and 3) adopted in national statistics. A discussion of historical developments of various regulations is supplemented by characteristics of key valuation methods. Differences and similarities are analysed and compared to current practices. A special attention is given to certain distinctive issues which are not shared by most of other types of assets like inclusion of decommissioning and rehabilitation costs or consequences of long duration of investment phase.