The Bureau of Land Management finalized a rule yesterday allowing it to cut royalty rates for non-energy minerals across the board to promote extraction on public lands. The rule will also let BLM slash rental fees and minimum production requirements for non-energy minerals industrywide as long as the Interior secretary finds it necessary to promote development. BLM will still consider royalty rate reductions for minerals like soda ash, potash and phosphate on an individual basis. But now the agency will ask for less information than previously required. Potash and phosphate are commonly used to make fertilizers for the agriculture industry. But Interior officials and lawmakers are focused on the effect the rule would have on soda ash. Also known as sodium carbonate, soda ash is a compound derived from the mineral trona and is used to manufacture products like glass and detergent.
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