General Statement:
In almost every other country in the world the govt owns all the mineral rights (oil, gold, silver, etc). That being the case, we shouldn’t be assholes all the time leasing here as it’s so much easier to lease in some of the other countries where you dont have to deal w/ so many ppl.
Still in the USA the local, state & federal governments own over 1/3rd of the land - most w/ the mineral rights.
I’d make a wild guess that less than 15% of the people in the USA own mineral rights & if you exclude those w/ less than a 5 acre interest it’d be less than 3%.