President Obama has submitted a new budget proposal to Congress that will charge royalties to mine some hard rock minerals. The budget proposes that new royalties on silver, gold and copper hard rock mining be levied. Then the states getting paid mineral revenues would need to pay back some of it to manage the costs of handling mineral releases.
A new fee structure will be established for reclaiming abandoned hard rock mines as well which would hold the hard rock mining industry responsible for environmental impact like the coal mining industry is. That would mean covering the costs of environmental damages as well. This proposal is likely to hit the Nevada mining industry the most, this being the place where 80% of the gold in the US is produced.
Senator Harry Reid from Nevada has praised Obama’s budget as a serious attempt to make a difference. He has been deriding Republicans for trying to protect billion in subsidiaries to oil and gas companies while being willing to cut down on social programs, entitlements and job training programs.
Now it is to be seen if he will abandon his principled stand in face of this initiative from the President that will hit much closer home. He said that he would support a proposal as long as it did not kill jobs and shared the revenue with the states.
Hard rock mining refers to various underground mining techniques used to excavate hard minerals, mainly those minerals containing metals such as ore containing gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, nickel and lead, but also involves using the same techniques for excavating ores of gems such as diamonds.