Mineral rights
Mineral rights are ownership of the minerals beneath a tract, held as an estate that can belong to someone other than the owner of the surface. In Virginia, where one person holds the surface and another holds the minerals under it, the commissioner of the revenue determines each estate and its value separately.
The commissioner's duty to value the surface and the minerals as two estates
Virginia's tax code says outright that minerals can be owned apart from the ground above them. Commissioners of the revenue must separately assess mineral lands, and when the surface and what lies under it are in different hands, the statute tells the commissioner to value each one.
If the surface of the land is held by one person, and the coal, iron and other minerals, mineral waters, gas or oil under the surface are held by another person, the estate therein of each and the relative fair market value of their respective interests shall be ascertained by the commissioner.
Va. Code 58.1-3286
The statute speaks of an estate in the surface and an estate beneath it, each with its own holder and its own relative value. That separation is what the term names. Its list of minerals is written for all of Virginia and describes no particular tract.
Recorded mineral conveyances, and the disclosure statement's disclaimer about them
A freehold estate in land can be conveyed in Virginia only by deed or will, so minerals conveyed away or reserved in a deed were separated in a written instrument, and the recorded chain of title is where to look for that instrument.
Where Virginia's residential property disclosure statute applies, the Real Estate Board's statement disclaims any representation by the owner on this point. The operative words are:
or with regard to any covenants and restrictions, or any conveyances of mineral rights, as may be recorded among the land records affecting the real property
Va. Code 55.1-703 B
The version that takes effect January 1, 2027 keeps that wording. Whether the minerals pass to the buyer in a given sale is taken up in whether mineral rights convey with the land.
Timber, the other interest the tax code separates from the surface
Minerals are not the only interest the tax code separates from the ground; standing timber can be owned, and assessed, apart from it too.
Trees owned apart from the land have their own entry under timber rights. How a tract comes to have its minerals or its timber in other hands, what that does to a sale, and where each piece of paper sits is laid out at length in mineral and timber rights.
Found a mineral reservation in an old deed to your land?
Send the tract's address or tax map number and the deed book reference if you have it, and Lowell will talk through how a separated mineral estate bears on selling the surface and who reads the title. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
What does Virginia's assessment statute count as the minerals in a separate mineral estate?
Va. Code 58.1-3286 describes the estate beneath the surface as the coal, iron and other minerals, mineral waters, gas or oil under it, when those are held by someone other than the surface owner. That list is the statute's, written for the whole state. It says nothing about what lies under any tract in Carroll County or nearby, and whether a particular tract's minerals were ever separated is a question for an attorney reading its title.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 58.1-3286: assessment of mineral lands Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 58.1-3284: assessment where surface and standing timber are owned separately Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-703: required disclosures, residential property disclosure statement Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 8.01-81: who may compel partition Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-101: conveyance of estates by deed or will Code of Virginia