One of the requirements for Competent Persons is that they need to be registered with or be a member of one of a specified list of statutory or professional bodies (or RPOs). The following note is of specific interest for members of the GSSA and/or SAIMM who wish to use such membership to sign off on Public Documents (Competent/Qualified Persons Reports, Competent/Qualified Persons Valuation Reports, Annual Integrated Reports, etc).
Please note that this does not apply if you are also registered with one of the statutory bodies (SACNASP, ECSA or SAGC) or IMSSA and are using that registration.
No member of the GSSA or SAIMM may be signing off on a publicly released Competent Person Report or Competent Valuators Report using their GSSA/SAIMM membership as the accreditation body, without first going through the peer review process.
Since 2017, the by-laws of both the GSSA and SAIMM require peer review of Competent Persons/Valuators (who are using their GSSA/SAIMM membership as the accreditation body). This process is to be followed for each public, newly released Public Report.
Members of the GSSA or SAIMM, who wish to sign off on a specific public report must submit themselves to this peer review process. The purpose of the process is to confirm that a person wishing to sign off as a Competent/Qualified Person/Valuator satisfies all the requirements of a Competent/Qualified Person/Valuator, and that his/her professional status has been validated by his/her Professional Association – it does not imply competence or proficiency and the professional bodies do not take responsibility for the quality of reporting by such persons.
Please note that this “peer review process” is not specific to the SAMCODES, the SSC or the JSE, or in fact, to any other Code or Stock Exchange. It is a requirement from both the SAIMM and the GSSA (the professional bodies) that all CP’s using their professional membership to sign-off public reports go through this peer review process. In the first instance, this is specifically applicable to authors signing off on SAMCODES documents to the JSE. However, by extension, this is applicable to all publicly released documents. It has nothing to do with the Code or the reporting jurisdiction. If you are using the name of the SAIMM or the GSSA to sign off on a public report, then you need to have “clearance” from that body to do so. This process is primarily to protect the professional bodies from abuse, but it also serves to assure other jurisdictions that membership with one of these professional bodies is as valuable as registration with a statutory body. The process is standardised for all reporting codes/jurisdictions.
The peer review “process” is not a big deal – the applicant simply fills out the form and sends it to Sam at the SAIMM. The members of the subcommittee (all Fellows of SAIMM and GSSA) look at whether the academic qualifications and experience of the applicant would qualify him/her as a CP and then approve the members request. The whole process takes 3-5 working days. There is no review of any documents/CPR, etc involved. No-one declares another to be competent (or not); no one goes onto any “List” of Competent Persons – it is simply an acknowledgement by the professional body that, based on the applicants declared qualifications, he/she should be sufficiently knowledgeable and experienced to report on the mineralization type referred to in the specified Public Report.
Two different application documents are available on the website:
Click to download the applicable form (or see the Registrations page) and submit it to sam@saimm.co.za timeously (the process usually takes five (5) working days from receipt of application). The forms may also be requested directly from sam@saimm.co.za