Missouri Assessor Overvalued Mineral Rights for Tax Purposes

A company that extracts lead, zinc, and copper from federal property in southeastern Missouri convinced a state appeals courts that the county assessor used the wrong method to determine the tax value of its mineral leases.

The Reynolds County Assessor’s approach would result in the “valuation of a substantial portion of what then remains tax-exempt real estate—the raw and yet-to-be extracted ore reserves located thereon and therein,” Judge Becky J. West wrote Thursday for the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District. The court affirmed the state tax commission’s $95.5 million valuation.

• The assessor put a value of $163.4 million on ...