Percentage depletion
General rule
Percentage depletion rates
The mines, wells, and other natural deposits, and the percentages, referred to in subsection (a) are as follows:
22 percent
sulphur and uranium; and
if from deposits in the United States—anorthosite, clay, laterite, and nephelite syenite (to the extent that alumina and aluminum compounds are extracted therefrom), asbestos, bauxite, celestite, chromite, corundum, fluorspar, graphite, ilmenite, kyanite, mica, olivine, quartz crystals (radio grade), rutile, block steatite talc, and zircon, and ores of the following metals: antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, columbium, lead, lithium, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, platinum and platinum group metals, tantalum, thorium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc.
15 percent
If from deposits in the United States—
gold, silver, copper, and iron ore, and
oil shale (except shale described in paragraph (5)).
14 percent
metal mines (if paragraph (1)(B) or (2)(A) does not apply), rock asphalt, and vermiculite; and
if paragraph (1)(B), (5), or (6)(B) does not apply, ball clay, bentonite, china clay, sagger clay, and clay used or sold for use for purposes dependent on its refractory properties.
10 percent
7½ percent
5 percent
gravel, peat, pumice, sand, scoria, shale (except shale described in paragraph (2)(B) or (5)), and stone (except stone described in paragraph (7));
clay used, or sold for use, in the manufacture of drainage and roofing tile, flower pots, and kindred products; and
if from brine wells—bromine, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride.
14 percent
All other minerals, including, but not limited to, aplite, barite, borax, calcium carbonates, diatomaceous earth, dolomite, feldspar, fullers earth, garnet, gilsonite, granite, limestone, magnesite, magnesium carbonates, marble, mollusk shells (including clam shells and oyster shells), phosphate rock, potash, quartzite, slate, soapstone, stone (used or sold for use by the mine owner or operator as dimension stone or ornamental stone), thenardite, tripoli, trona, and (if paragraph (1)(B) does not apply) bauxite, flake graphite, fluorspar, lepidolite, mica, spodumene, and talc (including pyrophyllite), except that, unless sold on bid in direct competition with a bona fide bid to sell a mineral listed in paragraph (3), the percentage shall be 5 percent for any such other mineral (other than slate to which paragraph (5) applies) when used, or sold for use, by the mine owner or operator as rip rap, ballast, road material, rubble, concrete aggregates, or for similar purposes. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “all other minerals” does not include—
soil, sod, dirt, turf, water, or mosses;
minerals from sea water, the air, or similar inexhaustible sources; or
oil and gas wells.
For the purposes of this subsection, minerals (other than sodium chloride) extracted from brines pumped from a saline perennial lake within the United States shall not be considered minerals from an inexhaustible source.
Definition of gross income from property
For purposes of this section—
Gross income from the property
Mining
Extraction of the ores or minerals from the ground
Treatment processes considered as mining
The following treatment processes where applied by the mine owner or operator shall be considered as mining to the extent they are applied to the ore or mineral in respect of which he is entitled to a deduction for depletion under section 611:
In the case of coal—cleaning, breaking, sizing, dust allaying, treating to prevent freezing, and loading for shipment;
in the case of sulfur recovered by the Frasch process—cleaning, pumping to vats, cooling, breaking, and loading for shipment;
in the case of iron ore, bauxite, ball and sagger clay, rock asphalt, and ores or minerals which are customarily sold in the form of a crude mineral product—sorting, concentrating, sintering, and substantially equivalent processes to bring to shipping grade and form, and loading for shipment;
in the case of lead, zinc, copper, gold, silver, uranium, or fluorspar ores, potash, and ores or minerals which are not customarily sold in the form of the crude mineral product—crushing, grinding, and beneficiation by concentration (gravity, flotation, amalgamation, electrostatic, or magnetic), cyanidation, leaching, crystallization, precipitation (but not including electrolytic deposition, roasting, thermal or electric smelting, or refining), or by substantially equivalent processes or combination of processes used in the separation or extraction of the product or products from the ore or the mineral or minerals from other material from the mine or other natural deposit;
the pulverization of talc, the burning of magnesite, the sintering and nodulizing of phosphate rock, the decarbonation of trona, and the furnacing of quicksilver ores;
in the case of calcium carbonates and other minerals when used in making cement—all processes (other than preheating of the kiln feed) applied prior to the introduction of the kiln feed into the kiln, but not including any subsequent process;
in the case of clay to which paragraph (5) or (6)(B) of subsection (b) applies—crushing, grinding, and separating the mineral from waste, but not including any subsequent process;
in the case of oil shale—extraction from the ground, crushing, loading into the retort, and retorting (including in situ retorting), but not hydrogenation, refining, or any other process subsequent to retorting; and
any other treatment process provided for by regulations prescribed by the Secretary which, with respect to the particular ore or mineral, is not inconsistent with the preceding provisions of this paragraph.
Treatment processes not considered as mining
Denial of percentage depletion in case of oil and gas wells
Percentage depletion for geothermal deposits
In general
In the case of geothermal deposits located in the United States or in a possession of the United States, for purposes of subsection (a)—
such deposits shall be treated as listed in subsection (b), and
15 percent shall be deemed to be the percentage specified in subsection (b).
Geothermal deposit defined
Percentage depletion not to include lease bonuses, etc.
Source
(Aug. 16, 1954, ch. 736, 68A Stat. 208; Pub. L. 85–866, title I, § 36(a),Notes
Amendments
Effective Date of 2017 Amendment
Effective Date of 2004 Amendment
Effective Date of 1990 Amendment
Effective Date of 1986 Amendment
Effective Date of 1978 Amendment
Effective Date of 1976 Amendment
Effective Date of 1975 Amendment
Effective Date of 1974 Amendment
Effective Date of 1969 Amendment
Effective Date of 1966 Amendment
Effective Date of 1964 Amendment
Effective Date of 1962 Amendment
Effective Date of 1960 Amendment
Effective Date.—
In general.—
Except as provided in paragraph (2), the amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) [amending this section] shall be applicable only with respect to taxable years beginning after
Calcium carbonates, etc.—
Election for past years.—
In the case of calcium carbonates or other minerals when used in making cement, if an election is made by the taxpayer under subparagraph (C)—
the amendments made by subsection (b) [amending this section] shall apply to taxable years with respect to which such election is effective and
provisions having the same effect as the amendments made by subsection (b) [amending this section] shall be deemed to be included in the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 and shall apply to taxable years with respect to which such election is effective in lieu of the corresponding provisions of such Code.
Years to which applicable.—
An election made under subparagraph (C) to have the provisions of this paragraph apply shall be effective for all taxable years beginning before
the assessment of a deficiency,
the refund or credit of an overpayment, or
the commencement of a suit for recovery of a refund under section 7405 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [formerly I.R.C. 1954] [section 7405 of this title],
is not prevented on the date of the enactment of this paragraph [
Time and manner of election.—
An election to have the provisions of this paragraph apply shall be made by the taxpayer on or before the 60th day after the date of publication in the Federal Register of final regulations issued under authority of subparagraph (F), and shall be made in such form and manner as the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate shall prescribe by regulations. Such election, if made, may not be revoked.
Statutes of limitation.—
Notwithstanding any other law, the period within which an assessment of a deficiency attributable to the application of the amendments made by subsection (b) [amending this section] may be made with respect to any taxable year to which such amendments apply under an election made under subparagraph (C), and the period within which a claim for refund or credit of an overpayment attributable to the application of such amendments may be made with respect to any such taxable year, shall not expire prior to one year after the last day for making an election under subparagraph (C). An election by a taxpayer under subparagraph (C) shall be considered as a consent to the application of the provisions of this subparagraph.
Terms; applicability of other laws.—
Except where otherwise distinctly expressed or manifestly intended, terms used in this paragraph shall have the same meaning as when used in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [this title] (or corresponding provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939) and all provisions of law shall apply with respect to this paragraph as if this paragraph were a part of such Code (or corresponding provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939).
Regulations.—
The Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this paragraph.”