Assume you have been hired as a consultant for ABC Resources to evaluate the mineral resource potential for their gold deposit. After your evaluation, you assess that majority of the resources are inferred with only a small percentage as indicated and measured. A primary reason for your judgment is that the QC/QA paired data shows that the test results have very high uncertainty. Once you share a draft of your initial assessment (note that an initial assessment is the study Regulation S-K 1300 requires for resource disclosure) with ABC Resources management, they ask for a meeting with you. At the meeting, they insist that your concerns with the QC/QA data are overblown and that you should strongly consider your classification. They claim you are making it hard for them to proceed with the project as it will be difficult to raise further funding with only a small percentage of measured and indicated resources. You respond by saying you are going to think about your work and get back to them. At the end of the meeting, the VP for Geology, who is the one who gave you the project calls you aside and says, they like working with your consulting company so don't make it hard for the relationship to continue

1- Are there ethical issues raised by their requests? Explain your answer by pointing to the specific clause and interpretation in the SME Code of Ethics.

2-How would you respond back to them?