Obama budget again seeks hardrock mining royalty, new abandoned mine fees

In his proposed $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2013 released Monday, President Barak Obama has once again called for creation of a hard abandoned mined land fund, as well as a hardrock mining royalty of not less than five percent of gross proceeds. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who hails from the mining state of Colorado, estimated creation of the Hardrock Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund--applicable to private and federal, state, and tribal lands--would generate $500 million in savings over the next 10 years. The Bureau of Land Management would distribute the funds through a competitive grant program to reclaim the highest priority hardrock abandoned sites on federal, state, tribal and private lands. Salazar also intends to reform Coal Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation by terminating the unrestricted payments to states and tribes that have been certified for completing their coal reclamation work. Currently the money has been dispersed to states based on how much coal they produce. However, a proposed new Abandoned Mine Lands Advisory Council to be created under the Office of Surface Mining would review and rank abandoned coal mine lands sites, so OSM could distribute grants to reclaim the highest priority coal sites each year. It is estimated the reforms would save taxpayers $1.1 billion over the next 10 years...more