Mineral Rights: Who Owns ‘Em?
Before I even get into this, I have to state that I’m not a lawyer, (and I don’t play one on TV) so you will need a lawyer to interpret the law - I can’t do that. I can only tell you how I understand what I’ve found.
When I write a contract, I have a clause that I throw in that explains that most of the land being bought or sold in this area, is being done so without the mineral rights. Here’s the clause:
BUYER IS AWARE THAT MOST PROPERTIES IN THE AREA DO NOT TRANSFER WITH THE MINERAL RIGHTS. SELLER AGREES TO TRANSFER MINERAL RIGHTS OWNED BY THE SELLERS RELATED TO THIS PROPERTY IF ANY AS A PART OF THIS SALE.
I’ve had very few people ask me about this, but a few days ago, I had two people ask, one because they heard me talking about it to the other. I just happen to know this from when I bought my land 15 years ago. Reading the fine print is important. So I thought this would be a good opportunity for me, and anyone else who’s interested, to learn about it.
I’ve contacted two title offices, and searched the Internet some. Here’s what I’ve learned:
- Back in the early 1900’s Aztec Land & Cattle as well as New Mexico Land & Cattle, bought up most of the mineral rights in this area. Dan Googler over at Transnation Title in Show Low, explained to me, that they did this right after the big oil discoveries in Texas around 1907. Back then most people thought oil would be anywhere someone decided to dig.
- There is at least one title company here that can do a mineral search and nail down who owns the mineral rights on your land, so you can have a lawyer attempt to buy them back for you if that’s what you want. My understanding is that, in this area, it doesn’t seem to be too tough to buy them back if that’s what you want.
- Dan also said that it’s fairly easy to nail down who owns the mineral rights in this area, and said there’s a 260$ charge to find out, but if it works out where they need to put more than 4 hours into finding the owner, then there’s an additional charge of $65 per hour after that. If you’re interested in this matter, you should contact Dan Googler @ 928-537-2941
- Most people still own the rights to gas and oil, in this area. Obviously out in Texas and other areas gas and oil are what have been bought up.
- Mineral rights are for mining minerals. I haven’t seen any mining action in this area, other than gravel, and the gravel companies that I know of, have had to buy the land outright, even though they may have owned the mineral rights, to be able to mine for gravel.
Now from what I’ve found, there is little land available in the US that transfers with all mineral rights. How many times have you heard on the news, or from any other source for that matter, about how someone woke up one day to a mining company knocking on their door explaining how they were going to be mining in their back yard for the next 10 years? In other states it may be an issue where gas and oil are being pumped, or in areas where coal is being mined, but I also think most of those are being done on land where the mining or oil companies have bought the land because of the public outcry. It’s a tough thing to mine or pump oil in this country. These companies I can imagine, spend many years getting the approval to go to work on land they own, let alone land they merely own the mineral rights on.
There may be a few things I’ve missed here, or something you think is important. If you’re reading this and you see something I need to know……that’s why I blog, I enjoy learning. Please leave a comment, I love comments! 
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