Chapter: Zakat on Minerals and Buried Treasure (rikāz)

When the gold taken from a mine reaches twenty dinars, or the silver reaches two hundred dirhams, zakat is taken from it on the spot; a new lunar year need not elapse. The rate for each of the two metals is one-quarter of one-tenth (2.5%).

Debt does not prevent or cancel the zakat due on minerals. Likewise, whatever has already been detached from the mine—its nuggets and seams—and is no longer connected to what comes out later is not added to the later extraction, just as the harvest of one year is not added to that of another. If someone owns two mines, one of gold and the other of silver, he combines the output of both and pays zakat on the aggregate.

All of this applies to ore obtained through expenditure, labour, and hardship. As for a chance lump found without effort, that is classified as rikāz, and the ruling of rikāz applies to it: one-fifth is payable.

It has been reported from Imām Mālik that such stray pieces found within the mine are treated like ore that requires labour, not like rikāz. The first view, however, is the distilled position of his school and is the fatwa of the majority of jurists, for the essence of rikāz is that which has settled in the ground and can be obtained without great hardship.