Qualified Persons Statement

The instrument requires that a "qualified person" be attributed to the information. This Qualified Person, in the spirit of the National Instrument, is required to be a reputable professional who is knowledgeable of the mineral property concerned, and who has sufficient experience and qualifications to make the statements which are made within the report. Often the Qualified Person need not be the author of the report, but in attributing the report as being compliant with the National Instrument, they are vouching for it. This is a matter of professional integrity and carries legal risk, as misleading statements can result in legal sanctions in Canadian and other jurisdictions.

A qualified person is defined in the National Instrument as:

• is an engineer or geoscientist with at least five years of experience in mineral exploration, mine development or operation or mineral project assessment, or any combination of these;
• has experience relevant to the subject matter of the mineral project and the technical report; and
• is in good standing with a professional association and, in the case of a foreign association (is of recognised stature within that Organisation)

The requirement for a Qualified Person in the NI 43-101 is different from that required by the JORC Code, and the SAMREC and SAMVAL Codes, wherein the person must have 5 years experience relevant to the deposit type or style of mineralization but is otherwise similar in terms of who may or may not sign off on such a document.

The Qualified Person must declare whether a qualified person has verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in the written disclosure; a description of how the data was verified and any limitations on the verification process; and an explanation of any failure to verify the data.