Albuquerque, NM (KKOB) — On Thursday U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández announced legislation that would require companies extracting hardrock minerals like gold, silver and uranium to pay up to 10% in royalties, as well as crack down on foreign adversaries’ extraction of valuable minerals from the United States. The bill would impose fees of between 5% and 10% on gross income that companies receive from mineral extraction and allocate those funds to states and tribes. Funds also could go toward remediating abandoned mines that continue polluting public lands across the West Leger Fernandez and other members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have a separate bill pending that would ban uranium mining in the Chama Watershed outright.
