Mining law reform considered in House

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 | 2:45 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The chair of the Elko County Commission testified before a House panel Thursday that her community would suffer economically if reforms to the 1872 hard-rock mining law impose steep federal taxes on the industry.

Commission chairwoman Sheri Eklund-Brown told the Natural Resources subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources that mining is a vital industry in Nevada, providing the state’s best-paying jobs.

The committee is considering HR699 a bill that would require mining companies to pay a royalty, just as oil and gas companies do, for extracting minerals from public lands in Nevada and other states. More gold is mined in Nevada than anywhere else in the country.

While Nevada and other states impose royalties on mining operations, the federal government does not. The Pew Center for Responsible Mining said minerals valued at $1 billion annually are extracted from federal lands.

The bill would also set limits on where mines can operate, to protect certain federal lands.

Eklund-Brown told the lawmakers that mining companies are good stewards of the lands public lands.

“Our community cares about clean air and clean water every bit as much as people in San Francisco or Boston do,” she testified.

“Without mining, it would be a short distance between a thriving community and a failing one in need of federal support,” she said. “In Elko, you don’t have to be an economist or a county official to know that we need the tax revenue and the community support that mining provides.”

Republican Rep. Dean Heller, who represents mostly northern Nevada where most of the mining operations in the state are located, also testified before the panel.

The House passed a similar mining overhaul bill last session, but legislation stalled in the Senate. Heller at the time sought to reduce the proposed royalty from 8 percent to 5 percent, but his amendment was defeated in committee on a party-line vote.

Heller is open to change that “achieves the goals of updating current mining law without hurting the economic viability of the mining industry in Nevada,” he said in a statement.

“With Nevada’s unemployment at 9.1%, the mining industry and the jobs it creates is one of the few bright spots in our current economic environment,” Heller said. “It would be misguided to burden the mining industry with excessive regulations and taxes if we want our economy in Nevada to thrive.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he’s open to considering reasonable changes to the law.

The Senate is expected to introduce its own version of the bill in coming months.

Discussion: 3 comments so far…

By texexnv

2/27/09 at 8:36 a.m.

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Elko acts like these are THEIR minerals - so hands off... Absolute BS! And don't believe for a minute mining is on the decline there. In 2004 there were 21,747 NEW claim filings and 22,840 in 2005.

But expect Boss Reid and all the other politicos to continue pimping for these Canadian conglomerates who get BILLIONS from our finite U.S. resources absolutely free. When they have removed all the wealth that is there, they will just move on to create the next ghost town as they have done for hundreds of years.

Considering the hundreds of BILLIONS in mineral wealth NevaDUH has pumped out since the Comstock, what do we have to show for it but 57,000 abandoned mines and a lot of ghost towns?!?
By rdb

2/27/09 at 10:56 a.m.

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Thank God for places like Nevada that are rich in mineral resources necessary to feed all aspects of our economy. And thank God for places like Elko whose people are working to get those reoucrces out of the ground and to market in an enviromentally sound manner. I feel sorry for idiots like the earlier commentaDAH, who have no clue how the minerals industry works and that this country could not function (including texexnv) without the minerals they provide. Mining is hardly free, it generates a lot of tax revenue. Industry would accept a reasonable approach to royalties, but HR699 would only serve to "KILL" mining. Not much in the way of taxes or royalties are payed by a dead industry, not to mention who would provide the mineral needs of a Nation.
By texexnv

2/28/09 at 6:10 p.m.

Suggest removal

Yeah....right. NevaDUH's "tax revenue" from mining is a whopping 00.0005%. Jeez...even ranchers pay more than this for use of our Federal lands.

What is it about mining that is enriching our state except for a few temporary jobs which will be terminated whenever mining finishes its computerization of its machinery? There are already pilot programs in Australia, Canada, and other countries that will computerize and automate everything in a mine from blasting to casting ingots.

Where will those jobs be when the computerized automation finally take over mining like they have in every other industry around the globe? Holding an empty tin cup is where those workers will be and the rdbs will still be telling us how wonderful the Canadian mining conglomeraters are.... Jeez...some people never get a grip until it's too late.

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