The IASB issued today an Interpretation clarifying the requirements for accounting for stripping costs in the production phase of a surface mine. The Interpretation was developed by the IFRS Interpretations Committee, the interpretative body of the IASB.
The Interpretations Committee was asked to clarify when and how to account for stripping costs (the process of removing waste from a surface mine in order to gain access to mineral ore deposits) to address diversity in practice.
The Interpretation clarifies when production stripping should lead to the recognition of an asset and how that asset should be measured, both initially and in subsequent periods. The Interpretation is effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013 with earlier application permitted.
The IFRIC Interpretation 20 Stripping Costs in the Production Phase of a Surface Mine is available for eIFRS subscribers from today on http://eifrs.ifrs.org.
