What Are Mineral rights?

Are you thinking about purchasing a piece of real estate? If so, you may want to do some homework. At a minimum, you should learn the answer to the question, “What are mineral rights?” particularly if the property you’re considering buying is located in a mineral-rich state like Texas, Wyoming, or Pennsylvania.

Even if you have no interest in prospecting for minerals, you should still familiarize yourself with the mineral rights attached to a given parcel before you make an offer on the land.

Mineral Rights vs Surface Rights

When you contact our Austin, TX prospecting company, we’ll explain that mineral rights and surface rights aren’t the same. As their name implies, surface rights give a landowner the right to use the surface of their property or the land that’s above ground.

By contrast, mineral rights refer to the right to exploit and explore the minerals that rest below the ground’s surface. More specifically, mineral rights give their holder exclusive permission to extract minerals that are located under a parcel’s surface or sell the authority so a third party can do so.

Mineral rights can be separate from surface rights, or they may be bundled together. Whoever holds a property’s mineral rights can act on them or sell the authority to exploit the underlying minerals without having any other ownership interest in the related parcel and without consulting with or soliciting the approval of the entity that owns the land’s surface rights.

What Minerals Are and Aren’t Covered?

While many people often think of solid materials when they hear “mineral rights,” the team at Enfield Minerals wants you to know these rights can refer to liquids and gases well. Here are some of the things that are normally covered by mineral rights:

  • Oil

  • Natural gases

  • Precious metals like gold and mercury

  • Coal

  • Semi-precious and non-precious metals

  • Rare earth elements

Common minerals that aren’t covered by mineral rights include:

  • Subsurface water

  • Gravel

  • Sand

  • Limestone

How Owners Hold Mineral Rights

In general, mineral rights are held in various estates. As mineral rights experts, we can tell you that the ownership estates that exist for mineral rights include:

  • Unified estate: an arrangement in which mineral and surface rights are held together.

  • Severed estate: an instance in which surface and mineral rights are held separately.

  • Fractional estate: this estate exists when different entities own portions of the mineral and/or surface rights.

For more information about mineral rights and our areas of interest, contact the Enfield Minerals team today!