On 26 August 2010 the IFRS Interpretations Committee, the interpretative body of the IASB, published for public comment proposed guidance on the accounting for stripping costs in the production phase of a surface mine.
The Committee was asked to consider how to account for stripping costs (the process of removing waste from a surface mine in order to gain access to mineral ore deposits) given the divergence in practice that exists.
The Committee has proposed that costs associated with a ‘stripping campaign’ should be accounted for as an additional component of an existing asset, and that this component should be written down over the reserves that directly benefit from the campaign.
DI/2010/1 Stripping Costs in the Production Phase of a Surface Mine was open for comment until 30 November 2010.
