The Company capitalizes all costs relating to the acquisition, exploration, and evaluation of mineral claims, and recognizes any proceeds received as a reduction of the cost of the related claims. The Company’s capitalized exploration and evaluation are classified as intangible assets. Such costs include, but are not limited to, ramp advancement, camp costs, geophysical studies, exploratory drilling, and geological and sampling expenditures. Concentrate sales and costs thereof are included in exploration and evaluation costs prior to demonstrating the technical feasibility and commercial viability of extracting mineral resources. When the technical feasibility and commercial viability of extracting mineral resources have been demonstrated, these costs are assessed for impairment and are reclassified to mining properties and become subject to depletion. All capitalized exploration and evaluation expenditures are monitored for indications of impairment. Where a potential impairment is indicated, assessments are performed for each area of interest. To the extent that exploration expenditures are not expected to be recovered, the expenditures for the area of interest are written down and charged to operations. The aggregate costs related to abandoned mineral claims are charged to operations at the time of any abandonment. An impairment charge relating to a mineral claim may be subsequently reversed if new exploration results or actual or potential proceeds on sale or farm out of the property result in a revised estimate of the recoverable amount, but only to the extent that this does not exceed the original carrying value of the property that would have resulted if no impairment had been recognized.
Borrowing costs incurred that are attributable to qualifying exploration and evaluation assets are capitalized and included in the carrying amounts of qualifying assets until those qualifying assets are ready for their intended use, which would generally occur upon the advancement of the project past the exploration and evaluation and development stages to production at levels intended by management. Borrowing costs are capitalized as incurred while activities and expenditures necessary to prepare the qualifying assets for intended use are in progress. All other borrowing costs are expensed in the period in which they are incurred. In the case of funds borrowed that are directly attributable to qualifying assets, the amount capitalized represents the actual borrowing costs incurred on the specific borrowings.
The recoverability of amounts shown for exploration and evaluation assets is dependent upon the discovery of economically recoverable reserves or resources, the ability of the Company to obtain financing to establish a sustainable mining operation, and on future production or proceeds of disposition.