The word mineral has a variety of meanings and the list of minerals varies from state to state. In general, ores of metals, coal, oil, natural gas, gemstones, dimension stone and other materials which are extracted from the ground. In most of the countries in the world this mineral wealth belongs to the government irrespective of the ownership of the property. In such countries, the land owner should inform the government if he/she found any minerals under his land. Without such action he/she is not supposed to extract or sell the land containing mineral deposits.
However, in USA and few other countries, any person or organization, who owns the land which was later found to have mineral resources is the owner of all the minerals in his place. The land lord can extract them, give the rights for lease or can sell the rights directly to any person he/she wishes to. In short the land lord owns both surface rights and mineral rights. In other terms this complete free ownership is known as fee simple estate.
The basic ownership of the individual is termed as the fee simple estate. In fee simple estate the owner controls the outer surface, inner surface, and also the air above his property. The ownership offers him the freedom to sell, lease, gift the rights of the property in any of the ways.
The laws on mineral rights vary from one state to another state. Some have different kind of law about the transfer of ones mineral rights to another and also the laws for governing drilling and mining activity. Before leasing or selling the mineral rights one needs to know the laws of his/ her own state by consulting an attorney who have sound knowledge on all these issues.