Exploration and evaluation assets and exploration expenditures
Acquisition costs for exploration and evaluation assets, net of recoveries, are capitalized on a property-by-property basis. Acquisition costs include cash consideration and the value of common shares, based on recent issue prices, issued for exploration and evaluation assets pursuant to the terms of the agreement. Exploration expenditures, net of recoveries, are charged to operations as incurred. After a property is determined by management to be commercially feasible, an impairment test is conducted and subsequent development expenditures on the property will be capitalized.
When there is little prospect of further work on a property being carried out by the Company or its partners, when a property is abandoned, or when the capitalized costs are no longer considered recoverable, the related property costs are written down to management’s estimate of their net recoverable amount. The costs related to a property from which there is production, together with the costs of production equipment, will be depleted and amortized using the unit-of-production method.
An exploration and evaluation asset acquired under an option agreement, where payments are made at the sole discretion of the Company, is capitalized at the time of payment. Option payments received are treated as a reduction of the carrying value of the related acquisition cost for the mineral property until the payments are in excess of acquisition costs, at which time they are then credited to profit or loss. Option payments are at the discretion of the optionee and, accordingly, are accounted for when receipt is reasonably assured.