Tribute mining is an arrangement by which a person, partnership or company works a mine or part of a mine, under a tribute agreement with the titleholder of that mine, and either pays to or receives from the titleholder a proportion of the production of the mine or of the value of the production. Miners working in this way are known as tribute miners or tributers, and the mine is said to be worked 'on tribute'. The arrangement differs from conventional contracting and employment, both in its nature and its origins.^[1]

A tributer is distinguished, from both an independent contractor and employee, in that the tributer takes over the running of the mine and is remunerated in a specific manner. The origins of tribute mining lie in the Stannaries of Cornwall and Devon, and the Stannary laws.^[1] Subsequently, the practice spread to other countries that inherited the common law system. In English-speaking settler colonial societies, the spread of the practice was enhanced by the widespread emigration of Cornish miners and mine managers.^[2][3]

In Australia, tribute agreements fall within the jurisdiction of Warden's courts, which date from the period of the Australian gold rushes. The arrangement commonly arose when the titleholders of a mine ceased working the mine, but agreed to let another party work the mine, usually on a smaller scale than previously.^[4] Tribute mining may be applied to any kind of mine but, in Australia, is especially pertinent to hard-rock mining, particularly gold mines, but also mines for other non-ferrous metallic minerals such copper^[4][5] and silver-lead-zinc ores.

An advantage of tribute mining is that it is a form of profit sharing, which encourages productivity.^[5][6]

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