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And somewhere off the spectrum is the United States where individual property owners own the mineral rights. Not much worry of one entity selling a whole countr
by njarboe 7y ago
And somewhere off the spectrum is the United States where individual property owners own the mineral rights. Not much worry of one entity selling a whole country full of oil for peanuts in that case.
- dboreham 7y agoNo they don't. Google "split estate". <googles> Hmm even better there is now a movie with that title. I know about this because the land my home sits on can be drilled for oil and gas because long ago someone (the railroad company who were given the land by the federal government, probably) sold the mineral rights. Also the federal government owns vast tracts of mineral rights.
- njarboe 7y agoI understand that mineral rights and surface rights can be separated. I should have mentioned that, as many people are unaware of the fact. What I was highlighting was that in the US individuals and/or companies own property rights to sub-surface minerals below private land, not the government, unlike most countries. People in the US can still claim federal land in the US for basically free, if they are going to mine productive minerals due to The General Mining Act of 1872[1]. Oil and coal leases are different and the government takes a 8%-12.5% royalty. Still not very much. Most of the value goes to a large number of people in the country, not to the government. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mining_Act_of_1872 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mining_Act_of_1872
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoSave for the multitude of sovereign nations within the US that aren't allowed to control their mineral rights.