On July 2, 2013, a US court vacated the new SEC rule requiring resource extraction issuers to file annual reports with information about government payments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas or minerals. Meanwhile, a new EU accounting directive was finalized that imposes a similar disclosure requirement for large mining companies registered or listed on a regulated market in the European Economic Area.

District Court Vacates SEC Government Payments Rule On July 2, 2013, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (the “District Court”) vacated Rule 13q-1 (the “Rule”) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). The Rule had been adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) in August 2012 pursuant to Section 13(q) of the Exchange Act, which was added by Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”). The Rule adopted by the Commission required “resource extraction issuers” to file annual reports with information relating to any payments made by the issuer, a subsidiary of the issuer or an entity under the control of the issuer to a foreign government or the US federal government for the purpose of the commercial development of oil, natural gas or minerals, beginning with fiscal years ending after September 30, 2013. These annual reports, like other filings with the Commission, would be available to the public.