Mineral rights (often referred to as a "mineral interest" or a "mineral estate") are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors. Mineral rights can be separate from property ownership (as in a split estate). Mineral rights can refer to sedentary minerals that do not move below the Earth's surface or fluid minerals such as oil or natural gas. There are three major types of mineral property: unified estate, severed or split estate, and fractional ownership of minerals.
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👉 Mineral rights in the context of Land law
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important intersection of property and contract law. Encumbrance on the land rights of one, such as an easement, may constitute the land rights of another. Mineral rights and water rights are closely linked, and often interrelated concepts.
Land rights are such a basic form of law that they develop even where there is no state to enforce them; for example, the claim clubs of the American West were institutions that arose organically to enforce the system of rules appurtenant to mining. Squatting, the occupation of land without ownership, is a globally ubiquitous phenomenon.Indigenous land rights is also a perennial related issue.
In this Dossier
Mineral rights in the context of Right of way
A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access highways, railroads, canals, hiking paths, bridle paths for horses, bicycle paths, the routes taken by high-voltage lines (also known as wayleave), utility tunnels, or simply the paved or unpaved local roads used by different types of traffic. The term highway is often used in legal contexts in the sense of "main way" to mean any public-use road or any public-use road or path. Some are restricted as to mode of use (for example, pedestrians only, pedestrians, horse and cycle riders, vehicles capable of a minimum speed).
Rights-of-way in the legal sense (the right to pass through or to operate a transportation facility) can be created in a number of different ways. In some cases, a government, transportation company, or conservation non-profit purchases the full ownership of real estate, including everything above and below the ground. Many rights-of-way are created instead by easement, which is a right to cross that does not include full ownership of the land. For example, the original owner may still retain mineral rights under the right-of-way easement, but not the right to exclude people from passing through certain parts of what would otherwise be private land.
Mineral rights in the context of Maritime law
Maritime law or admiralty law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private parties operating or using ocean-going ships. While each legal jurisdiction usually has its own legislation governing maritime matters, the international nature of the topic and the need for uniformity has, since 1900, led to considerable international maritime law developments, including numerous multilateral treaties.
Admiralty law, which mainly governs the relations of private parties, is distinguished from the law of the sea, a body of public international law regulating maritime relationships between nations, such as navigational rights, mineral rights, and jurisdiction over coastal waters. While admiralty law is adjudicated in national courts, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been adopted by 167 countries and the European Union, and disputes are resolved at the ITLOS tribunal in Hamburg.
Mineral rights in the context of Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than 247.3 million acres (1,001,000 km) of land, or one-eighth of the United States's total landmass.
The Bureau was created by Congress during the presidency of Harry S Truman in 1946 by combining two existing agencies: the United States General Land Office and the Grazing Service. The agency manages the federal government's nearly 700 million acres (2,800,000 km) of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal, state and private lands severed from their surface rights by the Homestead Act of 1862. Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Mineral rights in the context of Inuvialuit Settlement Region
The Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR; Inuinnaqtun: Inuvialuit Nunangit Sannaiqtuaq – INS; French: Région désignée des Inuvialuit – RDI), located in Canada's western Arctic, was designated in 1984 in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement by the Government of Canada for the Inuvialuit. It spans 435,000 km (270,000 mi), including 90,650 km (35,000 sq mi) of land and 12,980 km (5,010 sq mi) of subsurface mineral rights. The ISR is mainly above the tree line, and includes several sub-regions: the Beaufort Sea, the Mackenzie River delta, the northern portion of Yukon ("Yukon North Slope", Herschel Island), and the northwest portion of the Northwest Territories. The ISR includes both Crown Lands and Inuvialuit Private Lands. Most of the ISR is represented by Nunakput, the territorial electoral district, meaning "our land" in Inuvialuktun.
The ISR is one of the four Inuit regions of Canada, collectively known as Inuit Nunangat, represented by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK). The other regions include Nunatsiavut in Labrador, Nunavik in northern Quebec, and the territory of Nunavut. The ISR is the homeland of the Inuvialuit. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, established in 1986 as the receiver of the lands and financial compensation of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, is controlled by the Inuvialuit population and is responsible for ISR operations. From 1996 until 2016, Nellie Cournoyea, former Premier of the Northwest Territories, was the Chair and CEO of the Board. She had been elected nine times before declining to run again. In 2016, Duane Ningaqsiq Smith, was elected to replace her, was re-elected in 2019, and acclaimed in 2022.