Alaska Governor Tony Knowles signed on June 20 an exploration incentive bill that will allow up to 20 million dollars of credit per project for mineral exploration. The act provides for credit of qualifying exploration costs against future taxes and royalties. Qualifying costs include: geophysical and geochemical surveys, trenching, drilling, bulk sampling, underground exploration and metallurgical testing. The credits can be taken for exploration on state, federal or private lands, and can be used against future mining license tax, corporate taxes and royalties on production. The credits are site-specific and may be assigned to successors in interest. In addition, credits are limited to no more than 50 percent of taxes in any given year and would have to be taken within 15 years of beginning production. They are to be certified annually, to eliminate potential disagreements with the state when the company begins taking them. Any data generated by exploration must be given to the state when a company begins taking credit, and would be available to the public three years after credit is first taken.
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