How to Determine Mineral Rights

Individuals must obtain mineral rights before they can profit from mining minerals.

The United States and Canada allow separate ownership of surface rights and mineral rights. This fact makes determining mineral ownership complicated as it can be difficult to ascertain if and when in the past mineral rights may have been severed from surface rights.

Things You'll Need

• Warranty deed
• Title policy

Instructions

1. Obtain the warranty deed and title policy. If you are conducting research on a property you own, you received the warranty deed and title policy when you purchased the property. If you are researching a property that you do not own, the warranty deed and title policy can be viewed at the local county courthouse.

2. Look for a note on both documents that mentions something about the mineral rights being retained by the seller. This note indicates that the owner of the surface rights also holds the mineral rights. If no note exists, proceed to the next step.

3. You will have to back-track to determine if and when mineral rights were severed from surface rights. Look at the title policy previous to the current one and see if there are any notes regarding the purchase of mineral rights.

4. Continue back-tracking until you find the most recent policy with a note regarding the purchase of mineral rights.

Tips & Warnings

• All documents affecting real property transactions are recorded in the office of County Recorder of the specific county containing the land. Each county records thousands of these documents each year. How these documents are annexed will depend on the county, they may be indexed by township, range, land section in which the property is located, or by grantor or grantee. The county also records information regarding property transfer as result of divorce, death or marriage. Regardless of how these documents are annexed, you will have to go through the same back-tracking process in your research. If you are researching mineral rights because a company approached you about purchasing your rights, the interested company most likely conducted their own research that identified you as the owner. Therefore, your research may be futile.

• It can take a great deal of time to determine mineral rights ownership. You will have to back-track through the property's history to determine when/if mineral rights were separated from surface rights. Sometimes these rights can change hands several times. Mineral rights can even be taken away from an individual/corporation as many states have laws regarding necessary measures to maintain mineral rights. There are professional landmen who specialize in mineral rights research. These landmen a certified experts at tracing mineral rights ownership.

References

• North Hills Mineral Owners Coalition: How to Research Mineral Rights
• Barnett Shale Energy Education Counsel: Mineral Rights Leasing

Resources

• AAPL: America's Landmen