Troy Coons

NWLA Chairman

The Northwest Landowners Association (NWLA) hopes to raise awareness of House Bill 1459 and its potential serious consequences for your mineral rights. HB 1459 provides a framework for the development and permitting of critical minerals and rare earth elements, but it does something else extremely concerning for landowners and those who value rights to private property and private contracts.

This bill seeks to change terms in private coal lease contracts that you or your ancestors may have negotiated and signed.

As an organization, NWLA supports the intent of a regulatory framework that facilitates the development of these minerals and elements found in and near lignite coal seams. Unfortunately for mineral interest owners, this bill transfers your rights to valuable critical minerals and rare earth elements to coal developers, without your consent and regardless of what your coal lease language allows or has excluded. Additionally, it provides an unknowable royalty value for your minerals and elements that may be recovered in a processing facility at a rate of 2.5% of net income from the processing facility. HB1459 contains no landowner safeguards against cost deductions by the coal developer.

This 2.5% of net income royalty is well below market pricing for hard rock mining royalties as reported by the 2019 Government Accountability Office, which evaluated mining royalties in 12 western states.

Your rights as a mineral owner are not only enshrined in your coal lease, but they are also protected by the North Dakota and United States Constitutions. HB 1459 runs afoul of our great constitutions.

NWLA exists to protect, educate and inform landowners of their rights. For more information visit our website.