One of the most time-consuming tasks for exploration companies is tenement management. Ensuring your multiple tenements’ activities are recorded and reported on is vital, as failing to do so can affect your whole mining operation and lead to costly penalties.
Tenement Reporting
Your expenditure on mining tenements must be recorded and reported annually. Each state has various legislative requirements surrounding the management and reporting of tenements. In Western Australia, this is via a Form 5.
When completing a Form 5 report, the following details are required to be included
- Whether the report is an annual report or a final report for the tenement.
- The period covered by the report
- The type of tenement and the tenement number;
- Brief details of any operations carried out during the period of the report
- The expenditure amount claimed for each type of operation, together with the total amount expended on the tenement;
- The cost and detailed description for each activity
- Details of any related annual mineral exploration report; and
- Mineral commodity details.
If a Form 5 is not lodged within the required period or any approved period of extension is applied, notice of intention to forfeit proceedings will be initiated, which can cause significant problems for the continuance of the license or financial penalties.
How are you Managing Your Tenements?
Many mining exploration companies track expenditure against the tenement package and allocate costs to specific activities within the tenement. This can be very complex and time-consuming, especially with a large land holding and the regulatory activities associated with tenement reporting.
Activities such as costs, anniversary dates, physical data such as meters drilled, consumables and timesheets all need to be tracked, and the associated invoices need to be apportioned to the specific lease or tenement. In many cases, this function in the business is done on a myriad of spreadsheets and smaller accounting packages, with the view that these are a more cost-effective option for the smaller junior exploration company.
By using non-integrated systems the management of your tenements, the ability to manage your costs and reporting on a granular level can be very laborious. These systems often don’t provide the detail to the business that is required, especially during times of heavy reporting periods leading to potential costly mistakes.
How can an Integrated Solution help?
A fully integrated business system can replace the usual singular point solutions for each of the functions required to produce the reports needed. With an integrated solution, tenement management can be simplified, becoming more accurate and, more importantly, on time, reducing the risk of financial penalties.
By investing in an integrated project and tenement solution, exploration companies can meet the specific needs of regulatory reporting. This more refined reporting allows tighter cost controls and greater visibility of the metrics, vital for getting a project off the ground.
Our Tenement Management Solution
Our intuitive Business Management System is designed for mining exploration companies. It delivers a range of business functions and tenement reporting in a simple, cost-effective cloud solution with minimal capital outlay.
If you have any questions or want to discuss further how Scope Systems can work with you during the exploration stage or any stage of your mine lifecycle, then please get in touch.
