"The Trump administration on Monday finalized a rule allowing itself to issue areawide and industrywide reductions on fees that companies pay to the government in exchange for the ability to extract certain minerals from public lands.

While these royalty rate cuts are typically granted by the Bureau of Land Management on a case-by-case basis when companies apply for them, the agency's new rule codifies its ability to issue reductions “on its own initiative.”

The rule applies to existing leases for mining of materials that are not energy producing minerals such as soda ash, potash, phosphate, sodium, potassium, sulphur and gilsonite on public lands."

Rachel Frazin reports for The Hill September 1, 2020. [2]