Mineral Rights Lesson Plan

Answer key

Activity 1

Activity 2

Time alone, or a surface owner step?

Wisconsin: A step is needed. Wisconsin has a dormant mineral statute. A severed mineral interest lapses after 20 years without a use the statute counts, but nothing moves by itself: the mineral owner can cure by recording a statement of claim until the surface owner records a claim, and title passes only by court judgment or 3 years after the surface owner's claim if nobody sues. North Dakota: A step is needed. North Dakota deems a severed mineral interest abandoned if it went unused for the 20 years immediately before a surface owner first publishes a notice of lapse, unless a statement of claim was recorded. The owner of record can still record a claim or proof of use within 60 days after first publication. Nothing is lost by time alone.

Events that count as use

Wisconsin: Any minerals are mined in exploitation of the interest (sub. (2)(a)); A conveyance of mineral interests is recorded under ch. 706 (sub. (2)(b)); s. 706.01(5) defines that term as a transaction to explore for, mine, develop or extract metalliferous minerals; and others listed on the state page. North Dakota: Any minerals are produced under the interest (38-18.1-03(1)(a)); Operations are being conducted on it for injection, withdrawal, storage, or disposal of water, gas, or other fluid substances (38-18.1-03(1)(b)); and others listed on the state page.

Counted from

Wisconsin: Rolling 20 years: the interest lapses if it was not used during the previous 20 years (sub. (3)(a)), so each use listed in sub. (2) starts a new 20 years. The court applied this as the day after the 20th anniversary of the last use (last use January 12, 1987, lapse January 13, 2007, Lakeland para. 43). Transition: an interest not used during the 20 years before July 1, 1984, or used during the period from 17 to 20 years before that date, did not lapse if used by July 1, 1987 (sub. (3)(b) and (c)); after such a use it is again subject to the 20 year rule (Lakeland para. 38). North Dakota: Twenty years immediately preceding the first publication of the notice required by 38-18.1-06 (38-18.1-02). Any use listed in 38-18.1-03(1) during that window, including recording a statement of claim, means the interest was used; a timely statement of claim makes the interest in use at the date of recording (38-18.1-04). The window is anchored to the notice, whose timing the surface owner chooses.

A loss date from last use alone?

Wisconsin: Last use plus 20 years gives only the first day the interest can be in lapse, not a loss date. After that day the owner can still cure by recording a statement of claim until a surface owner's claim is recorded or takes effect, and title moves only on a judgment or 3 years after that claim, so the transfer date depends on a surface owner filing that a calculator cannot know. Uses are broad and some leave no trace in the land records (the mineral owner paying property tax), so a single last use date is easily wrong. For an interest last used before July 1, 1967 a calculator must not show a lapse date earlier than July 1, 1987. North Dakota: A calculator cannot turn one last use date into a lapse date. The 20 years run back from the first publication of a surface owner's notice, which may never happen; until then nothing lapses, and a later recorded lease, conveyance, pooling order or statement of claim is a new use. Even after publication, the record owner has 60 days to record a statement of claim or proof of use. Last use plus 20 years is only the earliest date on which a published notice could find an empty 20 year window; it is illustrative, not a deadline or a loss date, and must not be labeled window closed. Given an actual first publication date, a calculator could show the 20 year look back window, the mailing deadline (ten days after the last of the three weekly publications) and the owner's 60 day response deadline.

Sources: Wisconsin rule and sources, North Dakota rule and sources.

Activity 3

Interests reached

Louisiana: Mineral servitudes (31:21) and mineral royalties (31:80), each under its own prescription articles; the Code states that mineral rights are real rights subject either to prescription of nonuse for ten years or to special rules governing their term (31:16). An executive right that accompanies a mineral right is extinguished with it (31:113). Mineral leases (31:114) are not subject to prescription of nonuse (31:115(A)); a lease terminates at the expiration of the agreed term or on an express resolutory condition (31:133) and cannot be continued more than ten years without drilling or mining operations or production, subject to the solid mineral and lignite or coal exceptions in 31:115(B) and (C). North Carolina: Fee simple oil, gas or mineral interests severed from the surface fee and founded upon a reservation or exception in an instrument conveying the surface estate in fee simple (Avery: interests whose existence depends on such a reservation or exception). Interests created by a separate grant of minerals are not expressly within the wording. The county lists in the (d) subsections of 1-42.1 to 1-42.4 and 1-42.6 to 1-42.8 also required all severed oil, gas or mineral interests in those counties to be listed for tax and noticed by a fixed date to be effective against the surface owner, creditors and purchasers. G.S. 113-423(b) reaches any lease of oil or gas rights or other conveyance separating oil or gas rights from the surface, entered into on or after June 15, 2011.

Rolling clock today?

Louisiana: Ten years of nonuse (31:27(1) for servitudes, 31:85(1) for royalties), commencing on the date the right is created (31:28, 31:86). After operations, prescription commences anew from the last day actual drilling or mining operations are conducted (31:30), or from the last day of good faith operations to secure or restore production in paying quantities (31:41). After production, it commences anew from the date actual production ceases (31:36, 31:87). After a tested shut in well, from the date the well is shut in after testing (31:34, 31:90). After unitization with a tested shut in well, from the effective date of the unit order or act (31:35, 31:91). An acknowledgment by the landowner interrupts (31:54, applied to royalties by 31:93); a contractual extension runs for the period it states, which must be shorter than an acknowledgment would give (31:56). Reserved rights in land acquired for a certified economic development project have a 20 year period from acquisition (31:149(I)). North Carolina: No rolling statewide period. Each act fixed its own dates. G.S. 1-42.1 (1965): interests founded on reservations or exceptions executed or recorded 50 years or more before September 1, 1965, in favor of surface owners with a 50 year record chain on that date; notice to preserve within two years after September 1, 1965. G.S. 1-42.2 (1971): reservations 50 to 56 years before September 1, 1971; notice within two years after September 1, 1971. G.S. 1-42.3 (1974): reservations 50 years or more before September 1, 1974; notice within two years after September 1, 1974. G.S. 1-42.9 (1983, dates moved by 1985 c. 573): reservations 30 years or more before January 1, 1986, surface chain of 30 years, interest not listed for tax for five years before January 1, 1986; notice within two years after January 1, 1986. County acts: Ashe (1-42.4, September 1, 1977), Chatham (1-42.7, September 1, 1979), Alleghany (1-42.6, July 1, 1981), Rutherford (1-42.8, September 1, 1982), each with a two year notice window. Avery County (1-42.5): interests founded on a reservation or exception recorded before the surface owner's unbroken 30 year record chain are void unless a notice is recorded within that 30 year period. G.S. 113-423(b): 10 years from execution of the lease or conveyance, then reversion if commercial production stops for six months or more.

What the date tells an owner

Louisiana: Adding ten years to one last use date gives an illustrative date only. The restart point depends on the kind of use (last day of actual operations, cessation of production, shut in after testing, effective date of a unit order or act); unit activity from a well off the tract preserves only the part of the tract inside the unit; an obstacle suspends the running of the period; and a landowner acknowledgment or extension, which may sit only in the conveyance records, changes the date. Servitudes and royalties have different interrupting events, rights reserved in government acquisitions follow 31:149, leases follow their own terms, and an act covering noncontiguous tracts creates separate servitudes that prescribe separately (31:64). Where none of these applies, extinction is automatic when the ten years end, but whether operations were in good faith is a question of fact. North Carolina: The statewide and county acts ran on fixed statutory dates and every window closed between 1967 and 1988, so no present day deadline can be computed from a last use date and none should be shown as a rolling 21 year, 30 year or two year clock. Whether a particular old interest was extinguished depends on the instrument date, the county, tax listing, working status, the surface chain and whether a notice was recorded in time, which only a title examination can settle. The Avery County rule is rolling but keys on recording dates and the surface owner's 30 year record chain, not on last use. G.S. 113-423(b) keys on the execution date of a post June 15, 2011 lease or conveyance and on commercial production, not on last use.

Sources: Louisiana rule and sources, North Carolina rule and sources.

Activity 4, worked for Ohio

The Ohio page rests on the Dormant Mineral Act; its first source is Ohio Legislative Service Commission (codes.ohio.gov), and the rule carries the label shown at the top of the page. One open question from that page: “Amendments after the July 8, 2025 snapshot of the official code were not checked on the official site, which was not available when AMR checked. A web search found no 136th General Assembly bill amending R.C. 5301.56, which is not proof of absence.” Any state works; a good answer names the section, the date read and one question only a specialist can settle for a real interest.