I am new to this I was left some mining rights to a few acres in Marshall ,WVa. I was trying to find out if they are digging there. I am leasing the rights.
Marshall County is one of the areas where there is active drilling and leasing. It’s one of the better places to have mineral rights in WV right now. If someone is interested in drilling in your area, they will find you. You can make it easier to find them by making sure there is a clear connection between you and the last person whose name is listed in the courthouse as being the owner of the mineral rights. If you inherited the minerals, which sounds likely, you will have to figure out who all owned the minerals before you, then check to see if there are any documents in the courthouse with their names on them–wills, estates, deeds, affidavits of heirship, and the like. If there aren’t any, you should figure out what documents you need to create and then file them. There area lot of ways this could go after you accomplish this, but that’s the first step.
Kyle, could you tell me the going rate for ROW {per foot} in Marshall County WV and should the grantor be paid for each line?
I usually try to negotiate for just one line. Drag things out long enough and they’ll probably relent on that point. Unless, of course, the current project is to install two lines at the same time.
The old rule of thumb was that for permanent ROW you could get $1/inch/foot, so if you had 1000 feet of 12 inch line on your property you’d get $12,000. That’s changed a good bit. You can pretty easily get $2/inch/foot, and often get higher than that. I’ve often gotten into the $4 and $5 range. More importantly, though, you want to make sure the ROW is going to revert back to the surface owner when the ROW is no longer used, and make sure damages for surface damage caused by the ROW or the company is specified in the agreement. There’s quite a bit of other stuff you can throw into a ROW agreement because the surface of your tract is unique. It can be a lot of fun to negotiate this kind of stuff because it can get complicated. Good luck, and have fun!