§ 7-36-25 — Special method of valuation; mineral property and property

used in connection with mineral property when the primary production from the mineral property is uranium. A. The provisions of this section apply to the valuation of all mineral property and property used in connection with mineral property when the primary production from the mineral property is uranium. B. The following kinds of property held or used in connection with uranium mineral property shall be valued under the methods of valuation required by the Property Tax Code: (1) improvements, equipment, materials, supplies and other personal property held or used in connection with all classes of uranium mineral property; "improvements" as used in this section includes surface and subsurface structures, but does not include pits, shafts, drifts or other similar artificial changes in the physical condition of the surface or subsurface of the earth produced solely by the removal or rearrangement of earth or minerals for the purpose of exposing or removing ore from a mine; and (2) the surface value for agricultural or other purposes of class one productive or nonproductive uranium mineral property when the surface interest is held in the same ownership as the mineral interests. C. The value for property taxation purposes of class one productive, class two and class three uranium mineral property is the annual net production value of the uranium mineral property. D. The value for property taxation purposes of class one nonproductive uranium mineral property shall be determined under Subsection E of Section 7-36-23 NMSA 1978. E. For the purposes of this section, the "annual net production value" means: (1) the sales price of uranium-bearing material disposed of as ore or solution, less fifty percent of that sales price as a deduction for the cost of producing and bringing the output to the surface and of transporting and selling it; or (2) in the case of uranium-bearing material not disposed of as ore or solution but processed or beneficiated (other than by sizing and blending), regardless of the form in which the product is actually disposed of, the value of U3O8 contained in ore or solution determined on the basis of the U3O8 content of the ore or solution at fifty percent of the taxpayer's average unit sales price during the preceding calendar year of U3O8 contained in the concentrate form commonly known as "yellowcake" (or if the uranium concentrate has not been sold in the preceding calendar year, at fifty percent of the representative sales price for U3O8 contained in the concentrate form commonly known as "yellowcake" at the place and time of processing or beneficiation into that concentrate), plus fifty percent of the representative sales price of all other minerals produced and saved from such uranium-bearing material, less fifty percent of the value as a deduction for the cost of producing and bringing the output to the surface from an underground mine. F. In determining annual net production value of class two and class three uranium mineral property, a deduction may be taken for royalties paid or due the United States, the state or any Indian tribe, Indian pueblo or Indian who is a ward of the United States, but the deduction allowed by this subsection must be subtracted from one hundred percent of the applicable sales price before applying any other reductions in or deductions from that sales price.

Legislative History

1953 Comp., § 72-29-14, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 258, § 26; 1975, ch. 165,