House mining law reform bill imposes world's highest royalty

摘要

The House of Representatives in November passed its latest version of mining law reform. Nothing too new there. For several years, the House has passed various versions of legislation designed to "update" the Mining Law of 1872. Each time, though, the issue has died in the Senate, either because no compromise could be reached or there was the threat of a presidential veto (page 10). This latest version, though, may have legs, especially with a Democrat-controlled Congress and an increasingly unpopular president. It includes a list of environmental mandates, some of which are already addressed in existing state and federal regulations. The Secretary of the Interior would also have more power to kill a proposed project "that would have severe, irreparable impacts on natural resources," according to Rep. Nick Rahall (DWV), the House bill's chief sponsor. The biggest issue with HR-2262, however, is the aggressive gross royalties that would be imposed on companies that extract minerals from federal land - 4 percent on existing mines and 8 percent on new ones. And that is in addition to local, state and other taxes already paid by mine operators. That is the world's highest royalty for all minerals, said the National Mining Association.