The recommendation to lift the current confidentiality edict was made by Integra Mining managing director and Australasian Joint Reserves Committee member Chris Cairns at an event in Perth this morning.

Speaking at an ASX Reserves and Resources industry briefing on the ongoing revision of the JORC code, Cairns emphasised he was making a personal observation and not speaking for the JORC committee.

Cairns said there had been instances where the Australian Institute of Geoscientists had received a complaint, started an investigation and found against a member, triggering corporate bullying and threats of legal action.

He said the industry only required one class action to trigger a regulator response that no one wanted.

“I am recommending and have been in discussion with AIG and ASX about having professional organisations be legally required to inform the ASX when an ethics or complaints committee process has commenced,” Cairns said.

“Certainly the most efficient way of ensuring the code and public reporting maintains its integrity is through peer review.

“Currently the situation is that when an ethics committee process starts there is confidentiality provision on one hand.

“We have had instances when litigious and aggressive corporates have threatened legal action against the organisation that commenced an investigation of a member because there’s been a complaint about the public report that the member has signed off on as a competent person.”

He said the AIG in particular was an organisations of volunteers without the financial, legal or organisation capacity to “fight an aggressive corporate”

“By requiring the professional organisations to report to the ASX on commencement of an investigation … it doesn’t mean the organisations are making a pronouncement, it is simply providing transparency of an issue to the ASX so that they can do their own investigation,” Cairns added.

“I think this is an important change that really needs to be incorporated. Really, the efficiency of peer reviews is compromised, I think, because of these legal and confidentiality issues.

“It provides [the AIG] with the protection they would require because they would be legally obliged to report, it would enhance the peer review, [and it would] establish a link between professional bodies and the ASX.”

The industry has until October 26 to make their submissions on the proposed changes, when the amendments will be passed to the federal government for regulatory clearance.

A one-month transition period has been proposed with implementation scheduled for late 2013.

This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.