When you buy, sell, or develop property in Nevada, you need to know about the state’s mineral rights laws. This is because owning land in Nevada doesn’t always mean owning what’s under it. In Nevada, you can own mineral rights and surface rights separately. A severed mineral estate is the separation of minerals from the land. It can change everything from building plans to privacy and access.
Rights to Minerals vs. Rights to the Surface
Surface rights cover things like homes, fences, roads, wells, and grazing on the land you can see. Mineral rights give you the right to look for and get minerals that are below the surface. The surface owner, a previous owner, a company, or several heirs may own those rights to extract resources. The mineral rights may have stayed with someone else for decades if they were kept in an old deed.
How Mineral Rights Come Into Being and Are Passed On
When a property is sold, mineral rights can be sold, given away, passed down, or kept. A deed can either say that the seller keeps the minerals or that they are given to the buyer. The safest way to think about mineral ownership is to treat it as a question of title, not an assumption. If a property has had many owners in the past, mineral rights can be split up into percentages among several people.
Getting to and Using the Surface
Access is a common worry when there are multiple owners. In many cases, a mineral owner may have the right to use the surface in a reasonable way to get to the minerals. However, the surface owner still has the right to control how the surface is used on a daily basis as long as it doesn’t get in the way of development. In practice, written agreements that cover where vehicles can go, how roads are built, how fencing is handled, dust control, water use, and reclamation are often used to control surface impacts.
Before You Buy or Rent, Do These Smart Things
- Look over the deed and any reservations that have been recorded.
- Request a title review that focuses on minerals.
- Look in the county records for mineral leases, deeds, and easements.
- If there is a lease, make sure you know how long it lasts, how payments are made, what the royalty language is, and who is responsible for damage and cleanup.
- Think about getting a surface use agreement to protect the property’s future use.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I own the land, do I automatically own the minerals?
Not all the time. If minerals were previously reserved or sold, land ownership in Nevada may only include surface rights.
Can people who own mineral rights come onto my property?
Depending on who owns the property and what agreements are in place, they may only have limited access rights. However, the extent and conditions of these rights often depend on the documents and rules that apply.
What should be in a mineral lease?
Payments that are clear, royalty terms, access routes, operational limits, insurance, and cleanup responsibilities are all common starting points.
How do I find out who owns the minerals?
Begin with the recorded deed, and then look at the chain of title for mineral transfers in the county records.
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