Just as oil, gas and coal companies pay a royalty for extracting natural resources from public lands, mining companies also should have to pay the government for removing gold, silver and other minerals, argues the Obama administration.

 

Until now, mining companies have not paid royalties for the minerals they extract from government-owned land. But President Barack Obama has proposed, as part of his new budget plan, that mining interests pay a 5% royalty on new projects. This change would bring in only a modest amount of new revenue, about $7 million annually.

 

Mining companies, however, are dead set against paying any kind of royalty whatsoever.

 

Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, claimed Obama’s plan would “really stifle new investment” in the industry.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Federal Royalties for Gold and Copper? (by Felicity Barringer, New York Times)