248 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



ore which is mined and stored is properly cared for so that it 

 will be preserved. 



The companies insist that the taxes are so high that they 

 cannot make a reasonable profit, or at least cannot make a 

 profit on any but the high grade ores. They say that if all the 

 taxes were reduced, they could afford to take out the low 

 grade ores. 



The state argues that, after all, the natural resources of Min" 

 nesota belong in part to the people of Minnesota and not to 

 a few companies. They say that the tax structure simply re' 

 turns to the state a fair share of the value of the iron mines. 

 The state believes, however, in making tax laws in such a way 

 that they will enable the companies to use the low grade ores, 

 of which there are enough for a thousand years, and save the 

 high grade ores which it is expected will be gone in another 

 thirty years at the present rate of consumption. 26 



Taxes affect the mining of other minerals in the same way 

 that they affect iron. Ad valorem taxes tend to increase the de' 

 pletion of minerals, while severance taxes and other similar 

 taxes usually help to conserve minerals by making it profitable 

 to use the lower grade deposits which might otherwise be 

 wasted. 



MORE EFFICIENT USE OF MINERALS 



The problem of more efficient use of a mineral is very well 

 illustrated by copper. In the past twenty years, there has been 

 a drop of about 40 per cent in the amount of copper obtained 

 from a ton of copper ore. 27 At the same time copper refining 

 mills have been able to increase by 20 per cent the amount of 

 copper content recovered from the ore. Those two figures mean 



26 E. W. Davis, The Iron Ore Deposits of Minnesota: The Effect of Existing 

 Tax Laws on the Utilization of This Great J^atural Resource, An address de' 

 livered at the Minnesota Tax Conference. University of Minnesota, March 17, 

 1937, p. 18. 



27 Van Hise and Haveir.eyer, op. cit., p. 76. 



