Gold shot above $4,800 an ounce for the first time yesterday amidst gold fan Donald Trump’s deliberately induced global chaos. But South Dakota legislators are afraid to raise the tax on gold mining above the ridiculously low rate of $4 per ounce set in 1994, when gold sold for well under $400 an ounce.
Senator Michael Rohl brought his Senate Bill 7 to Senate Taxation yesterday. SB 7 proposed changing South Dakota’s gold severance tax from that flat $4 per ounce mined to a sensibly flexible 1% of market value. That percentage rate would have allowed South Dakota’s share of the wealth extracted from the sacred Black Hills to remain in proportion to the glittering wealth its miners enjoy as the gold market rises. By my estimate, SB 7 would raise South Dakota’s take from the Wharf mine operations from $392K to $3.66M a year.
But even amidst a tight budget, Senators on Taxation lack the courage to raise a tax that 99.999% of South Dakotans would never pay:
Rohl was the only supporter to testify. Several spoke in opposition, including Kent Nelson, general manager of Wharf Resources, who said the proposal would tie taxes to market prices in a way that increases volatility and uncertainty.
“The legislation will result in about a 275% increase of tax assessed per ounce of gold severed, raising it from $8 today to around $24 an ounce,” Nelson said. “We are unaware of any other business segment in the state that is taxed at a comparable rate. This tax could unintentionally negatively impact the state if gold falls below $1,600 per ounce.”
Republican Sen. Randy Deibert said he opposes raising taxes on an industry that has been a partner with the county since its founding.
“I ask you, why are we not taxing different things—lithium, gravel, all these things we’re extracting from natural resources? We’re only taxing one,” Deibert said. “If you look back at the history of the gold operation, we’ve supported the general fund more than most industries in the state from territorial days forward. Now you want to tax us more” [Michael Doorn, “Senate Committee Shuts Down Gold and Property Tax Bills,” KELO-TV, 2026.01.21].
Senate Taxation accepted two amendments to SB 7, lowering the tax rate to 0.5%, nixing an additional $4-per-ounce tax that current law imposes on gold mining, and dedicating proceeds above $1M from the tax increase to the rural water infrastructure fund. But ultimately the committee couldn’t cross the gold industry: all seven members to kill SB 7.
Morbidly obese Spearditch Earth hater Randy Deibert is a surveyor whose conflicts of interest compelled him to vote against the Black Hills environment and for his miner clients. According to my source within the South Dakota Legislature Deibert also has contracts with the LawCo lab named for a usurious pedophile.