SR&ED for mining & metallurgy
A difficult ore body can create operational trouble without creating SR&ED.
The claim question begins when available processing knowledge cannot explain or achieve the required recovery, grade or throughput.
Follow that problem from bench work through pilot or plant trials. Keep exploration and routine production separate from the investigation.
Trace the process question from bench to plant
- Processing-route experiments where recovery, grade or throughput could not be predicted from available knowledge.
- Ore-variability or feedstock investigations undertaken because established methods did not work for the material.
- Extraction, leaching or separation tests that compared hypotheses under defined conditions.
- Bench-to-pilot or plant scale-up work where the larger system behaved in an unresolved way.
Separate test work from operations
Routine production, standard exploration and drilling, ordinary grade estimation and applying an established flowsheet generally fall outside SR&ED. Operational scale and cost do not decide eligibility. The specific advancement and investigation do.
Keep the mass balance with the changed variable
Bench and pilot reports, assays, mass balances, recovery and grade data, and reagent or process trials can show what was tested. Keep the feed characteristics and operating conditions with the result; otherwise two runs may look comparable when they were not.
SREDlog organizes approved test-work records against the project and connects reviewed costs to the relevant run.
Frequently asked questions
Exploration does not qualify on that basis alone. Review a separate processing or recovery investigation only if its facts meet both CRA requirements.
Not automatically. A pilot may form part of an investigation when it tests an unresolved scale-up question. Confirming a known result or operating the plant routinely is different work.
Keep the sample and feed characteristics, method, changed variable, conditions, assay or mass-balance result and conclusion together. See documentation requirements.
Keep each flowsheet change tied to its result
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These industry examples are prompts for a fact-specific review, not categories guaranteed to qualify. Work must be conducted in Canada and meet both current CRA requirements; support work must directly support and be commensurate with eligible work. This is general information, not tax advice, and has not been reviewed by an independent qualified tax professional. See our editorial policy.