Nevada Voters to Tax Gold Miners

Voters have overwhelmingly approved a new tax on miners, many of whom are enjoying a gold bonanza rivaling this state’s famed Comstock Lode era.

Voters also approved a plan to double the money Nevada can borrow for new construction.

The temporary mining tax, which is expected to raise $52 million, won with 107,679 votes to 30,663 in Tuesday’s election. Voter turnout was 36%.

Nevada is the nation’s leading producer of gold. In the last eight years, mines here have produced more than 12 million troy ounces of gold with a value of about $5 billion.

At today’s prices, that amount equals the value of all the gold and silver unearthed in Virginia City during the two-decade Comstock Lode era that began in the late 1850s.

The mining tax was submitted to voters after a bitter debate in which Democratic Gov. Bob Miller accused mining industry lobbyists of deceit in trying to derail his proposal for a tax.