What Are Mineral Rights?

什么是采矿权？

Mineral rights are the ownership rights to underground resources such as fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.), metals and ores, and mineable rocks such as limestone and salt. In the United States, mineral rights are legally distinct from surface rights. Surface rights give the owner the right to use the surface of the land for residential, agricultural, commercial and other purposes. Mineral rights entitle the owner to own and exploit any natural resources found beneath the land.

采矿权是对地下资源如化石燃料(石油、天然气、煤炭等)、金属和矿石，以及石灰石和盐等可开采的岩石的所有权。在美国，采矿权在法律上不同于地上权。地上权赋予所有者将土地表面用于居住、农业、商业和其他目的的权利。采矿权使所有者有权拥有和开发土地下的任何自然资源。

How Mineral Rights Work

采矿权的运作方式

In the United States, it is possible for private individuals to purchase land and own the right to develop and exploit that land, including any natural resources found beneath its surface. Other places in the world offer less freedom.

在美国，私人可以购买土地并拥有开发和利用该土地的权利，包括地下的任何自然资源。世界上其他地方提供的自由更少。

Most countries allow private individuals to purchase land, but this ownership right only extends to the land's surface. Any resources found beneath that surface would be owned by the nation itself and controlled by its government. For example, in the United Kingdom, mineral rights for oil, gas, coal, gold, and silver are owned by the state. Minerals for other commodities are privately held.

大多数国家允许私人购买土地，但这种所有权只延伸到土地表面。在地下发现的任何资源都将归国家所有，并由政府控制。例如，在英国，石油、天然气、煤炭、黄金和白银的开采权归国家所有。其他商品的矿物为私人所有。

The fact that mineral rights can be privately owned in the United States means that homeowners with rights to valuable resources on their property can sell those mineral rights to private corporations, sometimes generating substantial up-front or ongoing royalty payments by doing so. A common example of such transactions involves properties located on subterranean oil reserves, which can attract purchase offers from oil extraction companies.

在美国，采矿权可以被私人拥有，这意味着对其财产上的宝贵资源拥有权利的业主可以将这些采矿权出售给私人公司，有时这样做会产生大量的预付或持续的矿区使用费。这种交易的一个常见例子是位于地下石油储备区的房产，这可以吸引石油开采公司的购买要约。

Generally, the attractiveness of these mineral rights—and, therefore, the royalties that private landowners can obtain for them—is heavily dependent on the price of oil. When oil prices are high, unconventional methods of oil extraction become more economical, raising the value of mineral rights.

总的来说，这些采矿权的吸引力——以及因此，私人土地所有者可以获得的特许权使用费——在很大程度上取决于石油价格。当油价高企时，非常规的石油开采方法变得更加经济，从而提高了采矿权的价值。

Special Considerations

特殊考量

Mineral rights are an important consideration when purchasing real estate. Mineral rights are often "severed" from surface rights in states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Colorado, and New Mexico. In North Carolina, property sellers must disclose to buyers whether their purchase includes the mineral rights to the underlying land. However, other states lack similar disclosure laws. This can cause situations in which a homeowner is made aware of valuable resources beneath their land, only to find that they are unable to benefit from those resources. 

购买房产时，采矿权是一个重要的考虑因素。在德克萨斯州、俄克拉荷马州、宾夕法尼亚州、路易斯安那州、科罗拉多州和新墨西哥州等州，采矿权通常与地上权“分离”开来。在北卡罗来纳州，房产卖家必须向买家披露他们购买的房产是否包括地下的采矿权。但是，其他州缺乏类似的披露法律。这可能会导致这样的情况：房主意识到他们土地下的宝贵资源，却发现他们无法从这些资源中受益。

To mitigate against this risk, homebuyers should ensure that they carefully study their property's land title records to verify whether the surface rights and mineral rights are included as part of their purchase. These documents are generally available through the records offices of the local property appraisal authority or the county clerk's office.

为了减少这种风险，购房者应该确保他们仔细研究他们的财产的土地所有权记录，以核实地上权和采矿权是否包括在他们的购买中。这些文件通常可在当地财产评估机构的档案室或郡书记办公室获得。

Real-World Example of Mineral Rights

采矿权的真实示例

The development of technologies such as horizontal oil drilling has made it increasingly common for resource-extraction companies to purchase mineral rights without necessarily needing to acquire surface rights as well. This approach is widely used in the Texas Permian shale basin, as well as in New Mexico, in order to extract oil and gas.

水平石油钻探等技术的发展，使得资源开采公司购买采矿权而不一定需要获得地上权的情况越来越普遍。这种方法被广泛用于德克萨斯州二叠纪页岩盆地以及新墨西哥州，以提取石油和天然气。

Another recent development in this sector is the involvement of large investment firms such as Texas-based EnCap Investments, which has invested in upstream companies focused on the Permian Basin and Marcellus Shale. Black Stone Minerals (BSM), also based in Texas, been concentrating its mineral rights investments within the Permian, Haynesville, and Bakken shale oil fields.

该领域的另一个最新发展是大型投资公司的参与，如总部位于德克萨斯州的EnCap Investments，该公司投资了专注于二叠纪盆地和马塞勒斯页岩的上游公司。同样位于德克萨斯州的黑石矿业公司(BSM)一直致力于二叠纪、海恩斯维尔和巴肯页岩油田的采矿权投资。

（英文来源：Investopedia）