ValidaAuditoria
Note 03 · 24/09/2026
Resource and reserve reporting codes — the Australian JORC, the Canadian NI 43-101, the Brazilian CBRR guide, all of the same family — do not exist to say how much ore there is. They exist to say with how much confidence the amount is claimed. And they do it with three words.
Inferred is the category of reasonable geology: sparse sampling, presumed continuity, declared uncertainty. Indicated has enough sampling to support a plan, with a known margin. Measured is the category in which the drilling grid, the quality of the assays and the responsible party's certification allow the quantity to be treated as the basis for an economic decision.
The problem is almost never the quantity. It is the word chosen. A report that declares "measured reserve" without attaching the sampling plan, the technical lead and the reference code has declared a word, not a category. And the difference between categories is not one of vocabulary: it is one of value, risk and timeline.
Verification does not recalculate the deposit. It confronts the word with the method that supports it: does the grid exist? Is the assay traceable? Under which code does the responsible party sign? When the method supports a category below the one declared, the finding is critical — because, alone, it changes the decision.
The subsurface cannot be guessed. The method is classified. It is the most honesty allows — and it is enough.
