American Mineral RegistryUnited States mineral & royalty records
Mineral rights laws by state · Press kit and data

Press kit and open data

In 14 US states, mineral rights you stop using can be taken back by the surface owner, in Louisiana after as little as 10 years. In 31 states and the District of Columbia they do not lapse at all.

Headline figures

Every figure below is compiled from the state code and published legal analysis, sourced per state, and free to cite with attribution. The full map and table sit on the main page.

14
states let unused mineral rights lapse
6
states use a special mechanism instead of a clean lapse
31
states and D.C. where minerals do not lapse
10 yrs
shortest clock, Louisiana, the fastest in the country
20 yrs
most common lapse period among lapse states
11
states with a surface damages or surface owner protection act

The Dormancy Risk Index

The Index rates all 51 jurisdictions 0 to 100 on how easily an absent owner can lose a severed mineral interest through nonuse. Louisiana tops it at 100 on a 10 year clock. These are the highest scoring states.

100
Louisiana, rank 1
84
California, rank 2
84
Connecticut, rank 3
84
Indiana, rank 4
84
Kansas, rank 5
84
Maryland, rank 6
Bar chart ranking US states by Dormancy Risk Score

The map

Free to embed in any article with attribution.

Map of US states shaded by whether unused mineral rights can lapse

Downloads

Images, the full dataset, and ready made citations.

Dormancy map (PNG)
The full US map image, ready to embed in an article
Risk Index chart (SVG)
The ranked score chart, scalable vector
Risk Index chart (PNG)
The ranked score chart as an image
Dataset (CSV)
All 51 jurisdictions, every field, with source links
Dataset (JSON)
Same data, machine readable, with metadata
Citation (BibTeX)
For reference managers and academic work
Citation (RIS)
For EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley
Citation (CFF)
Citation File Format for data repositories

How to cite

Plain reference:

American Mineral Registry. (2026). Mineral Rights Laws by State, 2026 edition. https://americanmineralregistry.com/research/mineral-rights-by-state.html

BibTeX:

@misc{amr_mineral_rights_2026, title = {Mineral Rights Laws by State, 2026 edition}, author = {{American Mineral Registry}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {\url{https://americanmineralregistry.com/research/mineral-rights-by-state.html}}, note = {Dataset of dormant mineral acts, lapse periods, forced pooling and surface damages across the 50 US states and the District of Columbia}, license = {CC BY 4.0} }

Editorial standards

This project is compiled and maintained by the American Mineral Registry research team, a brand of American Mineral Registry LLC. Each state entry is built from the primary statute and corroborating legal analysis. Where a primary source is available online it is linked directly. Every cell carries a source status: sourced means a primary statute is cited, surveyed means national statutory surveys confirm no dormant act exists.

We log corrections in a public changelog on the main page, mark a last reviewed date, and publish a fresh edition each year. Spotted an error or a statute change? Write to offers@americanmineralregistry.com and we will review and credit the correction.

Related open data

A companion dataset, state tax on mineral and royalty income, maps state income tax and oil and gas severance treatment across all fifty states and D.C. It is released under the same Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence and is free to cite.

Licence and contact

All figures, the dataset, the map and the chart are released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. You may use them anywhere with credit to American Mineral Registry and a link to https://americanmineralregistry.com/research/mineral-rights-by-state.html. Press and data questions: offers@americanmineralregistry.com.