Mr. Garrison, depending on which state your minerals are in; there are a few carved-in-stone surveying tips I can give you for free.
Typical states are broken into Townships of about 36 squares called Sections, which are usually a mile on each side.
Ranges are an indicator of how many Townships away from the Central/Principal Meridian (usually a line that splits the state into more manageable areas), and are usually East or West of the Meridian.
Townships are usually North or South of the Meridian, but are set by the states as to where they start.
A typical “Plat” is actually a survey drawing of an area that’s being considered for construction, etc., and shows the lands involved, and some adjacent tracts.
For instance; a legal description of a tract of land usually states the origin of the ownership (…the same lands described in a lease dated 1/2/34, by Williams, et al to Davis & Sons, being the SE/4 of S34 T4S R31E, Miller County, Utopia, and recorded in Book 76, P 456 Miller County Clerk), and describes more particularly the interest being recorded.
In the example above, the S stands for Section, the T for Township, and the R is Range. The name of the county tells one where to look for it on mapping software like Google Earth.
Imagine an equal-sided square (the section), and imagine a cross in the middle, dividing east from west, and north from south.
Those pieces of section are called Quarter-Sections, and the lower-right one is the SE 1/4. Many more subdivisions are available by placing smaller and smaller crosses on the quarters, and the resulting smaller portions are described as “NE/4 SE/4 SW/4” which when read backwards is; in the SW 1/4 of the section, the SE 1/4 of the NE 1/4", or the piece of land in the lower left half of the section, divided into quarters, of which the lower right piece is divided into quarters, and specifically the top right piece of that.
Clear like mud? It’s usually easier to draw the section (square), add the first cross, then zoom in to the quarter section in the description, add a cross, zoom again, and keep repeating until you locate the lands in question.
There are usually 640 acres in any section, but that depends on which state, and fractional or “aliquot” portions, aka leftovers.
Quads are simply the term used by mappers to describe a “Quadrant” of mapped area, and are available from the USGS (US Geological Survey), or surveying equipment stores if you can’t find the “Quad Map” online.
They are available in several map dimension scale ratios like, 1:24000 (one foot equals 24000 feet on the map), or larger/smaller formats.
Without getting too deeply into Geodesy, suffice to say that most are defined by Latitude/Longitude or State Plane Coordinates along the edges (thousands of feet from the point of origin of the coordinate system, expressed as a large number in red along the side or top of the map page).
A survey is simply a professional delineation of the boundaries, lengths and directions of property lines, separate tracts of land, or divisions of tracts, parcels or units, necessary when transferring ownership or conveying title of minerals, etc.
If this is the kind of information you need; let me know what else you’d like to learn about how to weave through the language, and I’ll be happy to help. If you add an email address to the mail thingie on this forum; I can send you pictures as well.
Joe