Have you ever "sold" the natural resource rights, of your property, to a private corporation/government body?

MY co-worker’s father finally did because he is getting older and didn’t want the legal paperwork, taxes,etc. I was amazed because this is Alberta where oil wells are on many farms and mineral rights don’t exist anymore for new landowners.

Well, I might have if I had owned the mineral rights to begin with, but the folks who originally settled the land that eventually became the site of the housing development I lived in retained the mineral rights and passed them on to their heirs. Thus, I could only purchase the surface rights to my little 1/10 of an acre, while the Weil family owned the mineral rights.

My grandparents did MANY years ago to an Oil company ; however; they never got the residules that they were promised… even though the property made the oil comapnay much $$$$$$ !

In the US you do own your mineral rights unless you or a previous owner sell them. In New England mineral rights have never really been an issue as there is nothing valuable (other than water) under our rocky soil. Both properties I own retain their mineral rights.

It turns out that we had no choice. The original settlers sold the mineral rights 100 years before we moved in The only people that I know that retained the mineral rights on their property are the nuns that own a monastery in our town. They get free natural gas to heat their buildings.