Reasons are given for the seemingly excessive public concern with taxation of the mineral industry. Optimality of mineral extraction is a concept that requires careful definition in terms of one or more objectives. Once defined, the impact of taxation upon optimal mineral extraction may be studied; findings from earlier work on this topic are presented for two basically different cases._x000D_
In conclusion it is observed that the pursuit of optimality requires the availability of highly skilled engineers; in the event of a large-scale mineral development it is this resource that is probably scarcest of all.