St. Rep. David Miller of Riverton spoke at LEADER Corp's monthly meeting in Lander on the importance of Wyoming's mineral industry.
(Lander) — State Representative David Miller of Riverton told members and guests of the LEADER Corp. in Lander Wednesday morning that without the minerals industry in Wyoming, the state would be forced to impose a state income tax to support the state’s budget.
“Our weath in Wyoming comes from minerals, so when you talk about economic diversifcation here, you’re really talking about a state income tax,” he said. “To replace the income from all mineral taxes, we’d have to impose a $30,000 tax on every wagearner.” While Miller said that is an unlikely scenario, he said the state, and the United States as a whole, must relax its rules and regulations to stimulate continued mineral development, and keep money flowing into the state’s coffers.
“I view minerals as a use it or lose it propsition,” Miller said. “We have a trillion and a half tons of coal in Wyoming, but if we don’t get it out of the ground now when people want to buy it, 20 years from now what will that coal be worth when nuclear fusion technology is developed?, he asked rhetorically. “We need to use it or lose it.”
To illustrate, Miller pointed to a chart showing federal tax collections from Wyoming BLM-managed lands and minerals. Minerals provided revenues of $1.893 Billion; lands and agriculture contributed $10.1 Million; recreation contributed $383,000 and timber $14,065. “Ninety nine and a half percent of revenues comes from minerals,” he said.
Miller said the multi-national companies involved in mining exist to make money, and he said they’ll do exploration and development where it is most profitable for them. “It’s simple capitalism,” he said. “In the Fraser Institute ranking of governments friendly to mineral development, Wyoming has dropped from a number two ranking in 2009 to number nine in 2011. These companies are drilling and mining where there is less government interference.”
Miller, the CEO of Strathmore Minerals USA based in Riverton, said his firm has already paid out over $26-million in fees and costs for a uranium project in the state of New Mexico, “but we don’t have a permit yet, and no cash flow. You have to start wondering if I should have invested here or elsewhere, you can’t get things done here.”
St. Rep. David Miller said development of Gas Hills Uranium assets owned by his company is being made possible with the help of a Korean power company.
Looking to the future, Miller issued a warning about more government regulations. “You should be scared, very scared. The BLM in Lander is doing a regional plan now to make access to public lands even more restrictive. That will impact our future revenue stream, and impact everyone in the county,” he said.
In his specialty of uranium, Miller, said a deal signed last week with Korean Electric Power Company would help spur development of uranium reserves in the Gas Hills and Beaver Rim areas of Eastern Fremont County. “We have 35,000 acres of assets in the Gas Hills, and development there will create upwards of 100 jobs when you combine drilling, support services and establishment and operation of a uranium mill there to produce yellow cake,” he said. Miller said the Gas Hills Uranium District closed down in the early 1980s, “because of a reaction to Three Mile Island, the bottom dropped out of the market. It’s not because we ran out of uranium, there are tremendous reserves still out there.”
With the price of uranium slowly gaining ground again, up from $7 per ton in the 2002 to around $50 per ton today, Miller said there is more interest in the region’s uranium reserves. “We’d like to see it at grow to at least $56 per ton to get these mines back into production.”
