This article is part of our President’s FY2024 Budget Request Coverage. Visit our Rolling Analysis Page for more.

Today’s FY24 budget release does not include a royalty on hardrock minerals extracted on federal lands, an item on our budget wish list. Although the FY2023 budget request did not explicitly include a hardrock royalty, it did establish an Interagency Working Group (IWG) to review hardrock mining permitting and oversight on Federal lands in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Mining Law of 1872. As part of the review effort, the Department hosted public input and comment sessions on potential hardrock mining reforms. The Biden Administration also released their Fundamental Principles for Domestic Mining Reform along with the announcement of the IWG, which included adopting a fair royalty to benefit taxpayers.  

For the past 150 years, mining companies have not been required to pay a royalty to taxpayers from the sale of publicly owned hardrock minerals like gold, silver, copper, etc., extracted from federal lands. This is different from federal management of oil, gas, and coal development, which charges extractive companies a royalty rate as high as 18.75 percent. TCS submitted comments to the IWG expressing the need for Congress to adopt a royalty on hardrock as well as other reforms.  

A budget proposal that includes hardrock royalty, like we saw in FY12, may be able to restart the conversation about the need for Congress to end a giveaway that has lasted for more than 150 years. A hardrock royalty will not only raise revenues and give taxpayers a fair return on the resources extracted from public lands, but will also complement the President’s proposal to eliminate certain fossil fuel tax breaks, like the expensing of exploration and development costs and percentage depletion allowance for hardrock mining.