IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v38y2013i1p8-17.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gold mine feasibility study disclosure in Australia: Determinants and implications

Author

Listed:
  • Ferguson, Andrew
  • Feigin, Alexey
  • Kean, Stephen

Abstract

This study investigates disclosure practices for gold development companies in their feasibility studies. The information environment around feasibility studies released by developmental stage enterprises in the Australian gold mining industry is characterised by little in the way of disclosure guidance or rules. This contrasts with Canadian disclosure requirements which are highly prescriptive. Using a sample of 85 Australian gold feasibility studies, we develop a new voluntary disclosure index and consider three problems. First, we examine the association between levels of voluntary disclosure in the feasibility study and external involvement. Second, we consider whether levels of voluntary disclosure are associated with successful debt financing. Third, we analyse the relationship between levels of voluntary disclosure and a successful project outcome. Voluntary disclosure is found to be driven by the presence of an external feasibility manager and the number of external consultants named in the feasibility release. Our evidence also finds that voluntary disclosure levels are positively related to debt financing availability and project success, suggesting voluntary disclosure levels are a useful signal of project quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferguson, Andrew & Feigin, Alexey & Kean, Stephen, 2013. "Gold mine feasibility study disclosure in Australia: Determinants and implications," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 8-17.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:38:y:2013:i:1:p:8-17
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2012.06.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420712000517
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2012.06.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skinner, Dj, 1994. "Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Bad-News," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 38-60.
    2. Lummer, Scott L. & McConnell, John J., 1989. "Further evidence on the bank lending process and the capital-market response to bank loan agreements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 99-122, November.
    3. Amir, Eli & Lev, Baruch, 1996. "Value-relevance of nonfinancial information: The wireless communications industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 3-30, October.
    4. Ferguson, Andrew & Scott, Tom, 2011. "Market reactions to Australian boutique resource investor presentations," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 330-338.
    5. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    6. Andrew Ferguson & Matthew Grosse & Stephen Kean & Tom Scott, 2011. "Your Governance or Mine?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(4), pages 406-417, December.
    7. Miller, Merton H & Upton, Charles W, 1985. "A Test of the Hotelling Valuation Principle," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(1), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Alberto Moel, 2002. "When Are Real Options Exercised? An Empirical Study of Mine Closings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 35-64, March.
    9. Barton, Jan & Waymire, Gregory, 2004. "Investor protection under unregulated financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 65-116, December.
    10. Malik Mirza & Ian Zimmer, 2001. "Disclosure of reserve quantum in the extractive industries," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 41(1‐2), pages 63-91, July.
    11. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    12. Stephan Hollander & Maarten Pronk & Erik Roelofsen, 2010. "Does Silence Speak? An Empirical Analysis of Disclosure Choices During Conference Calls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 531-563, June.
    13. Ray Ball & Philip Brown, 1980. "Risk and Return from Equity Investments in the Australian Mining Industry: January 1958 — February 1979," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 5(1-2), pages 45-66, April.
    14. Andrew Ferguson & Greg Clinch & Stephen Kean, 2011. "Predicting the Failure of Developmental Gold Mining Projects," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(1), pages 44-53, March.
    15. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    16. Ross L. Watts, 1977. "Corporate Financial Statements, A Product of the Market and Political Processes," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 2(1), pages 53-75, April.
    17. Robert E. Verrecchia & Joseph Weber, 2006. "Redacted Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 791-814, September.
    18. Trueman, B & Wong, MHF & Zhang, XJ, 2000. "The eyeballs have it: Searching for the value in internet stocks," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 137-162.
    19. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kenneth Clements & Liang Li, 2017. "Understanding resource investments," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(20), pages 1950-1962, April.
    2. Kenneth W. Clements & Liang Li, 2014. "Valuing Resource Investments," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 14-27, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    3. Dean Katselas & Baljit K. Sidhu & Tom Smith & Chuan Yu, 2019. "Independently Certified Industry‐specific Disclosures to the Capital Market: The JORC Code in the Australian Mining Industry," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 55(1), pages 128-179, March.
    4. Fox, Kenneth A., 2017. "The usefulness of NI 43-101 technical reports for financial analysts," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 225-233.
    5. Kowalewski, Oskar & Śpiewanowski, Piotr, 2020. "Stock market response to potash mine disasters," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    6. Cox, Benjamin & Innis, Sally & Mortaza, Adnan & Kunz, Nadja C. & Steen, John, 2022. "A unified metric for costing tailings dams and the consequences for tailings management," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andy Lardon & Marc Deloof, 2014. "Financial disclosure by SMEs listed on a semi-regulated market: evidence from the Euronext Free Market," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 361-385, February.
    2. Imhof, Michael J. & Seavey, Scott E., 2014. "Corporate risk-taking, firm value and high levels of managerial earnings forecasts," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 328-337.
    3. Fargher, Neil & Wee, Marvin, 2019. "The impact of Ball and Brown (1968) on generations of research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-72.
    4. Thi Bui & Andrew Ferguson & Peter Lam, 2021. "CEO compensation in early‐stage firms: Rewards for prospectivity and survival," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5-6), pages 895-928, May.
    5. Miihkinen, Antti, 2013. "The usefulness of firm risk disclosures under different firm riskiness, investor-interest, and market conditions: New evidence from Finland," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 312-331.
    6. Luminita Enache & Khaled Hussainey, 2020. "The substitutive relation between voluntary disclosure and corporate governance in their effects on firm performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 413-445, February.
    7. Alexey Feigin & Andrew Ferguson & Matthew Grosse & Tom Scott, 2016. "Evidence on why firms use different disclosure outlets," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 29(3), pages 274-291, September.
    8. Allaya, Manel & Derouiche, Imen & Muessig, Anke, 2022. "Voluntary disclosure, ownership structure, and corporate debt maturity: A study of French listed firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    9. Boone, Audra L. & Floros, Ioannis V. & Johnson, Shane A., 2016. "Redacting proprietary information at the initial public offering," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 102-123.
    10. Elshandidy, Tamer & Fraser, Ian & Hussainey, Khaled, 2013. "Aggregated, voluntary, and mandatory risk disclosure incentives: Evidence from UK FTSE all-share companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 320-333.
    11. Michael Bradbury & Graeme Dean & Frank L. Clarke, 2009. "Incentives for Non‐Disclosure by Corporate Groups," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(4), pages 429-454, December.
    12. Hannu, Schadewitz, 1997. "Financial and nonfinancial information in interim reports: Determinants and implications," MPRA Paper 44292, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Andrew Ferguson & Tom Scott & Neil Fargher, 2016. "The determinants and market reaction to Open Briefings: an investor relations option and evidence on the effectiveness of disclosure," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 56(3), pages 803-843, September.
    14. Mustaruddin Mustaruddin & Aristya Dinata & Wendy Wendy & Anwar Azazi, 2017. "Asymmetric Information and Capital Structure: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia Stock Exchange," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(6), pages 8-15.
    15. Abdo, Hafez & Mangena, Musa & Needham, Graham & Hunt, David, 2018. "Disclosure of provisions for decommissioning costs in annual reports of oil and gas companies: A content analysis and stakeholder views," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 341-358.
    16. Liao, Chih-Hsien & San, Ziyao & Tsang, Albert, 2024. "Corporate governance reforms and voluntary disclosure: International evidence on management earnings forecasts," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    17. Francois Lantin & Pierre Roy, 2007. "L'impact de la notation financière sur les stratégies de croissance externe," Post-Print halshs-00692570, HAL.
    18. E. Cheynel & M. Liu-Watts, 2020. "A simple structural estimator of disclosure costs," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 201-245, March.
    19. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    20. Reddy, Kotapati Srinivasa, 2015. "Extant Reviews on Entry-mode/Internationalization, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Diversification: Understanding Theories and Establishing Interdisciplinary Research," MPRA Paper 63744, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2015.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Voluntary disclosure; Debt financing; Feasibility study; Gold; Development stage enterprises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L72 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Other Nonrenewable Resources

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:38:y:2013:i:1:p:8-17. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.