Many CIMs present “long-life reserves,” “low-cost production,” or “stable royalties” without proving resource confidence, realized grade and recovery, stacked royalty burdens, permitting risk, or free cash after sustaining capex and closure. Mining and natural resources due diligence (also called minerals, metals mining, oil & gas upstream, extractive, or resource-sector diligence) underwrites how the business discovers, develops, extracts, contracts, and monetizes in-ground assets. It tests reserve quality, royalty and offtake structure, jurisdiction and permits, cost-curve position, WC and ARO, and commodity risk. It is not the same as manufacturing diligence (plant capacity and OEE), utilities diligence (regulated rate base and grid reliability), infrastructure diligence (digital/data-center assets), environmental diligence (contamination and ESA screens alone), real-estate diligence (title and property valuation alone), agriculture diligence (biological yield and offtake), or commercial diligence (aggregate demand). Mining work underwrites whether the extractive production engine produces durable, permitted, bankable cash through the hold period.
Mining vs manufacturing vs utilities vs environmental
| Workstream | Primary question | Typical output |
|---|---|---|
| Mining / natural resources DD | Is extractive production durable, permitted, and monetizable? | Reserve bridge, royalty map, cost-curve heat map |
| Manufacturing DD | Is plant capacity and cost competitive? | OEE, capacity, capex, throughput |
| Utilities DD | Is regulated cash and reliability bankable? | Rate base, fleet, rate design |
| Environmental DD | Is contamination/compliance underwritten? | ESA findings, permits, liabilities |
| Infrastructure DD | Are digital/critical assets durable? | Capacity MW/space, SLAs, capex |
Six pillars of mining diligence
1. Reserves, resources, grade & recovery
Bridge resources to reserves to mineable inventory to sold product: confidence categories (measured/indicated/inferred or 1P/2P/3P), grade trends, recovery and payability, strip ratios, dilution, and concentration in a few pits, seams, or wells. Flag vanity resource statements and one-off high-grade sold as trend. Align with commercial diligence, quality of earnings, and financial diligence.
2. Royalties, offtake, streaming & commodity risk
Royalty and streaming stack, offtake and tolling counterparties, pricing formulas, TC/RCs, quality specs, hedges and collateral, and margin sensitivity to price mean-reversion. Connect to customer diligence, pricing diligence, and contract diligence.
3. Jurisdiction, title, permitting & social license
Concessions and mining titles, free-carried interests, community and indigenous agreements, environmental and water permits, export and royalty regimes, political risk, change-of-control consents, and whether growth assumes tenements or permits that cannot be secured on model timelines. Align with legal diligence, regulatory diligence, CFIUS diligence (where foreign investment intersects strategic minerals), and GovCon diligence only when public-sector contract engines dominate (distinct from mining titles).
4. Cost curve, opex & unit economics
Cash cost and all-in sustaining cost position, labor and energy intensity, consumables, logistics to port or smelter, tolling margins, and whether contribution survives mid-cycle commodity prices. Align with operational diligence, supply-chain diligence, and logistics diligence.
5. Capex, mine plan, fleet & plant durability
Sustaining vs growth capex, mine plan realism, fleet and processing plant condition, debottlenecking path, and capital intensity per unit of production. Connect to manufacturing diligence (process plant layer), infrastructure diligence, and LBO diligence.
6. Closure, ARO, WC, HSE & climate
Reclamation bonds and asset retirement obligations, tailings and waste facilities, HSE history, seasonal WC and inventory of product, insurance, and climate/water stress that can strand assets. Connect to environmental diligence, insurance diligence, NWC diligence, and people diligence.
DI20-WELCOME) — useful for reserve and royalty questions, jurisdiction heat maps, cost-curve red flags, open-question lists, and data-room prioritization, not a substitute for full QP reports, mine-plan models, title/concession counsel, or specialist ARO and metallurgy studies.
Stage sequencing (screen to IC)
| Stage | Mining focus | Deal-team action |
|---|---|---|
| Teaser / CIM | Reserves, cost, royalty story | Flag grade, recovery, and royalty claims |
| Desk diligence | Asset map, jurisdiction, mix | Red/amber/green; hotspot list |
| Deep technical / legal | Reserve bridge, permits, ARO | Reserve bridge; royalty & title map |
| IC / model | Cases for price, grade, delay | Base / upside / downside with mining cliffs |
| Post-close | Mine plan, bonds, renewals | 100-day extractive plan with named owners |
Red flags
| Signal | Severity | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Title/concession or free-carried terms unclear; key permits expire inside hold without path | Deal-Killer | Production cliff after close |
| Realized grade/recovery collapses vs reported averages after dilution and payability | Deal-Killer | Growth thesis not cash |
| Stacked royalties/streams leave thin free cash at mid-cycle prices | Deal-Killer | Unit economics not bankable |
| ARO/reclamation bonds underfunded vs realistic closure plan | High | Hidden leverage and liability |
| Cost-curve position only works in a recent commodity spike | High | Earnings volatility exceeds leverage |
| Tailings, HSE, or community conflict history without remediation | High | Asset impairment and license risk |
| Growth plan depends on permits/tenements the jurisdiction will not grant on model timeline | High | Expansion not executable |
| No multi-year grade, recovery, or site-level cash cost pre-IC | Watch | Model and IC risk elevated |
Cost & timeline (traditional vs first-pass)
| Approach | Typical cost | Timeline | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full mining specialist module (QP, mine plan, jurisdiction, ARO) | $25K–$150K+ | 4–12 weeks | Multi-asset mines, complex royalties, frontier jurisdictions |
| Targeted reserve + top-royalty / permit deep-dive | $15K–$50K | 2–6 weeks | Cleaner single-asset or brownfield expansions |
| Public first-pass mining pack | $49 | Minutes to hours | Triage before specialist spend / IC framing |
50-point mining diligence checklist
- Top assets / commodities by revenue and production
- Resource and reserve statements by confidence category
- Multi-year grade, recovery, and dilution history by site
- Resources-to-reserves-to-sold product bridge
- Strip ratio / decline curve trends and mine plan realism
- Royalty and streaming stack (rates, bases, buybacks)
- Offtake / tolling counterparty concentration (top 5)
- Pricing formulas, TC/RCs, payability, and quality specs
- Hedge policy, collateral, and P&L impact history
- Mining titles, concessions, and free-carried interests
- Community, indigenous, and surface rights agreements
- Environmental, water, and export permits status and expiry
- Change-of-control and government consent requirements
- Political / jurisdiction risk and fiscal regime stability
- Cash cost and all-in sustaining cost vs peer cost curve
- Energy, labor, consumables, and logistics cost per unit
- Contribution per ton / ounce / barrel after royalties
- Sustaining capex vs growth capex history and plan
- Fleet, plant, and infrastructure condition / remaining life
- Debottlenecking and brownfield expansion path
- Working capital peaks (product inventory, receivables)
- Reclamation bonds, ARO, and closure plan adequacy
- Tailings / waste facility integrity and monitoring
- HSE incident history and regulatory actions
- Insurance coverage for property, liability, and business interruption
- Climate, water stress, and stranded-asset scenarios
- Related-party offtakers, royalty holders, or JV partners
- JV governance, offtake rights, and deadlock history
- Litigation, tax disputes, and arbitration history
- Competitive set and orebody / basin quality differentiation
- Key technical and site-manager concentration
- Succession of permits and relationships post-close
- Synergy claims that ignore mine plan or permit limits
- Export, logistics corridor, and port capacity constraints
- Government royalty, windfall, and production-sharing terms
- ESG and responsible-sourcing certifications (where material)
- Data-room gaps on site-level cost and title docs
- Counsel workstream for title, permits, and royalties
- ESA / environmental site assessment status
- Integration impact on contractor incentives and ops cadence
- Post-close mine plan with named owners and milestones
- Bond and surety renewals; coverage gaps
- IC materials: price, grade, delay, and jurisdiction cases
- Alignment of growth thesis with realistic reserve and permit runway
- Leverage model sensitivity to one mid-cycle price year
- Exploration upside vs development capital required
- Smelter / refinery / midstream dependency risk
- Contractor mining vs owner-operator cost and control
- Product quality specs and customer rejection history
- Alignment of reserve life with debt tenor and hold period
How deal teams use a first-pass pack
Use a first-pass mining pack to structure early questions, pressure-test CIM reserve and cost language, build royalty and jurisdiction heat maps, and prioritize data-room asks before QPs, mine planners, metallurgists, and jurisdiction counsel engage. Pair it with financial, QoE, manufacturing, utilities, environmental, infrastructure, agriculture, commercial, and LBO workstreams. It is an input to IC framing — not a full Competent Person report, multi-asset mine review, or specialist commodity study.
Underwrite the extractive engine before you underwrite the growth case
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Get a structured first-pass diligence pack — useful input for mining and natural-resources thesis tests, reserve and royalty questions, jurisdiction risk, cost-curve position, and IC prep, not a full specialist mining study.
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