A mine does not get built on hope alone, but rather, it gets built on paper first. That paper is the bankable feasibility study, and it is the document that turns a promising ore body into a financeable project. Simply, it is the business case that a bank will actually read before writing a very large cheque.
What makes a feasibility study bankable?
The legal benchmark comes for bankable feasibility studies may come from securities regulations and issuances. In Canadian mining, that would be National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) on Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, as administered by the provincial securities regulators.
Under NI 43-101, a feasibility study must cover all relevant geological, engineering, legal, operating, economic, social, and environmental factors with enough detail for a financial institution to base a final lending decision on it.
The term “bankable feasibility study” is not separately defined in NI 43-101. Instead, it is a commercial label which signals that the study has been prepared to a level of technical detail and independence that external financiers can rely on.
There are three things that separate this type of study from one that will not survive lender review:
- independence: it must be prepared by third-party experts with no financial stake in the project
- evidence over assumption: every cost figure, resource estimate, and market projection must be verifiable
- shows a complete picture: it must cover the following:
- resource and reserve estimates
- mining plan
- Environmental Impact Assessment
- social impact assessment
- financial model
Take a look at how bankable feasibility studies work with this video:
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What are the four types of feasibility studies?
Mining projects advance through a staged series of studies, and each are more detailed and demanding than the last. As a project matures, the confidence required by lenders rises with it.
Scoping study (preliminary economic assessment)
Usually the first one, a scoping study uses basic data and minimal engineering to test whether a project has economic potential at all. Cost estimates carry a wide accuracy range of around plus 40 percent to minus 25 percent. Notably, no financing decision can be made at this stage.
Pre-feasibility study
When scoping results justify further work, a pre-feasibility study follows. It examines the preferred mining method, production schedule, and infrastructure requirements, improving cost accuracy to approximately plus or minus 25 to 30 percent.
In Canada, a pre-feasibility study carries specific legal weight. Under NI 43-101 and other industry standards, a pre-feasibility study is the minimum study required before a company can formally disclose a mineral reserve to the public markets.
Most projects with a completed pre-feasibility study advance to the next stage, while the rest are shelved due to economic, technical, or regulatory concerns.
Full feasibility study and bankable feasibility study
Also called a bankable feasibility study, a full feasibility study is prepared specifically for external financing, delivers cost accuracy within plus and minus 10 percent, with engineering typically between 10 and 40 percent complete at the time of study. It is the required step before a project can attract serious external capital.
Here’s another video which discusses feasibility studies in mining projects:
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How does a bankable feasibility study differ from a definitive study?
One of the most common points of confusion in mining finance is the difference between a bankable feasibility study and a definitive study, partly because the two terms are used interchangeably in practice.
A definitive feasibility study and a bankable feasibility study cover the same technical ground. Under US Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation S-K Item 1300, the terms “bankable,” “definitive,” “final,” and “full” are all treated as equivalent to “feasibility study.” In Canada, NI 43-101 makes no formal distinction between them.
The practical difference comes down to purpose and preparation:
- a definitive feasibility study is primarily prepared for internal decisions, including board approvals, capital allocation, and project planning
- a bankable feasibility study is prepared for external review and must withstand scrutiny from lenders, investors, and their advisers
- on the audit question, a bankable feasibility study is generally subjected to a full independent audit, while a full feasibility study may or may not be, depending on whether the project is financed internally
- in practice, a bankable feasibility study directly supports project finance drawdown, reserve-based lending, and institutional equity commitments, not only the opening of financing discussions
A Canadian example makes this concrete. Skeena Resources Limited completed a Definitive Feasibility Study for its Eskay Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle in November 2023. That study helped underpin a US$750 million financing package from Orion Mine Finance, announced in June 2024, which included a US$350 million senior secured credit facility and a US$300 million gold stream arrangement.
What does a bankable project mean for mining projects?
A project described as “bankable” has passed a high-confidence threshold. It has been independently assessed and found capable of generating returns that justify lending.
A clear example was when in July 2026, NOVAGOLD Resources Inc. and Paulson Advisers LLC announced a US$4.2-billion consolidation of the Donlin Gold project in Alaska. As reported by Canadian Lawyer on the NOVAGOLD and Paulson Advisers deal, the transaction “removes joint-decision-making friction ahead of a bankable feasibility study” and creates a single counterparty for Alaska Native landowners Calista Corporation and The Kuskokwim Corporation.
Canadian counsel included Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and Goodmans LLP, both regularly recognized in Lexpert’s annual rankings of Canada’s top mining law firms and practitioners.
This deal illustrates that this study shapes decisions long before a single technical page is written. A project preparing for one will need to think through the following matters:
- governance, because lenders need a clear decision-making structure with a single accountable counterparty
- community and Indigenous relationships, since social licence to operate is part of any lender’s risk assessment
- legal standing, including defensible title, secured regulatory approvals, and a clear permitting pathway
For lawyers advising mining clients, this study is not an afterthought to the legal process but is something the legal work must help make possible.
Bankable feasibility study: the paper that builds mines
Mining projects begin with a discovery and end, if all goes well, at production. Everything in between is a series of decisions, each one requiring more confidence than the last. The bankable feasibility study is where that chain of decisions reaches a conclusion that lenders, investors, and partners will act on. It is not a guarantee that a mine will be built, but it is the document that makes building one a realistic possibility.
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