Does anyone have any experience with hard rock mineral rights / ownership? I’m trying to learn more about private mineral ownership for things like tin, graphite, coal, etc. but don’t know where to start. Is it anything like O&G mineral rights or a completely different beast? I’m use to the pretty well defined world of oil and gas leases and not sure if there’s similar contracts outside of O&G. Anything helps, but hopefully someone out there might actually own some interests and could add some detail around similarities or differences.
From what I remember all minerals are minerals whether they a gold or coal or lithium , minerals are minerals! Sorry can’t be more specific! Best of luck
In Texas Coal rights stay with the surface rights. I have mineral rights on land that was once owned by my father-in-law but is now a coal mine. He was forced to sell when a power plant was built near by. We recieve a royalty check every month from a producing gas well on the property. We get nothing from the coal the mine produces.
A quick rule of thumb is if the surface is destroyed to retrieve the “mineral” then the proceeds go to the land owner. The slower rule of thumb is check prior deeds for mineral reservations that may have included specific references to items like coal, iron ore etc.
The newest issue is about lithium extraction from saltwater produced from new wells explicitly drilled for the saltwater deposit. Water of all types generally belong to the surface owner unless they were sold.
Interesting read on some old wells is south west Arkansas I just got some old wells and Exxon is going to renter them for the lithium
Jim, our family has had in our estate 12 sections of oil& gas & dry minerals rights. I am not schooled in geology but taking free courses on utube by Nick Zetner. And 60 years ago I had some encounters with land men & oil drillers for our great Uncle drilled for oil in Lander County, Nevada the 10 out of 15 wells ever drilled for oil in that county. And recently I had to do a crash effort on learning dry mineral rights as opposed to oil & gas. What I can as a civilian tell you that oil & gas leasing has some simularities but mostly not. Oil & gas rights can be legally separated from dry mineral rights from your holdings of beneath the earth. And surface rights has it own laws & regulations of access, water rights, environmental concerns. . Dry rights composed of precious metal like gold & silver & other rare earth metals, lithium, uranium & can be singled out or specially designated in a lease on how its handled even the depth of drilling or mining. And gravel & sand & other constuction minerals? .I have No idea about coal? I’m not familiar with practices & laws of any of these materials. Oil & gas usually is a 5 year lease & with a 5 option. There maybe upfront money & and an annual rent per acre pay out.Which is modest amount. Because to stimulate a exploration keeping cost down intially. . But where the big money is in the royality of 1/8 to 1/4 of production paid ussually monthly. But each lease varies according to negotiations & laws. But every lease has infinate variation thanks to lawyer & liberal state laws to collect taxes. Lol Now gold & silver & others precious metal royalities are a much smaller percent 2% to 5% of what is extracted and smelted from the metal bearing ore. It could lithium or other rare earth metals or minerals. But each lease is negotiated & absolutely needs a lawyer and expert to judge whether the offer is fair & acceptable. These leases also have upfront cash & periodic payment as rent per acre. And so many variations of royalties types. But coal & gravel , sand I am not familiar with & would not even pretend I know anything. There are landsmen who manage your sale or leases for a fee, there is auction platforms to do on your own if you know what you are doing. And title search companies, geology mining engineers & expert companies to tell you what your rights are valued at to determine if you are getting a good deal. Good luck & I hope I did not overwhelm you. Buy the simple answer is Oil & Gas, Gold & Silver ,Coal & Constuction Materials are totally different & have distinct industry practices & laws to dealing with management of your rights & extraction of your assets.
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Thank you for sharing this information! I have continued to look for my mineral that my father left me and so far a lot of luck with some company helping me ! The only one I have had a problem with is Exxon ! They never what to return calls ! So I have a estate lawyer that is doing there best to help, needless to say they have no idea of what is what I had to do all the hunting of these royalties to get them , again thanks for sharing! James
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