My minerals are located in Columbia County, AR where lithium seems the greater hope than do oil or gas.
I follow the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission for updates on lithium production from brine leases, and they recently added a tab showing a map of “Brine Supply Wells and Units.” On this map it appears as though my mineral rights might overlap a state park. Is this possible and/or problematic?
My minerals are an undivided 1/6 interest in 166 acres that include Sections 8, 9, and 17 of 16S 20W in Columbia County, Arkansas.
You may need to do some online searching to see if Arkansas has determined if pore space belongs to the surface owner for brine leases. It does in many states. The mineral owner does not get the benefit of that type of lease in those states.
Thank you for responding, Martha.
The best that I found was from a 2015 energy journal entry by a Trae Gray, attorney and MBA in Oklahoma. He says, “Currently, Arkansas has not addressed pore space ownership either by
statute or through case law.” A bill on pore space ownership was introduced to the Arkansas House in 2011 but didn’t pass.
I will also be interested to learn how this “Strohacker doctrine” will work with lithium production.
To paraphrase a law firm’s article about the doctrine, in order for a “mineral” to be conveyed or reserved in Arkansas it must be known to exist in the public’s mind at the time and place of the conveyance.
In my case, the chain was:
Person1 owned surface and minerals, died > Person2 inherited surface and minerals, sold surface and retained minerals in 1980, died > Person3 inherited only minerals > sold minerals to me.
In 1980, when the minerals were severed to keep in the family while surface was sold to a paper company, brine and bromine would have been “known to exist in the public’s mind” so the right to brine/bromine should have been reserved. But I don’t think the lithium in that same brine would have been known to the Arkansas public in 1980.
I’m looking forward to the AOGC’s upcoming decision on lithium royalty rates and can only hope that the pore space falls to the mineral owner.
Not sure what Arkansas will do. At some of the conventions I have attended this year conversations about lithium have been quite interesting. Produced water that comes out with oil and gas production may or may not belong to the mineral owner-at times, the operator gets it, so they would get the lithium, not the surface or mineral owner. Most states so far have given brine from aquifers to the surface owner under their pore space rules.
I sent an email to Standard Lithium and heard back today. Here’s how it went:
Me: Can you tell me if the company’s Arkansas leases are with land surface owners or mineral owners?
Standard Lithium: Re. your question, the company utilizes both types of leases, depending upon the owners’ assets or rights, though in all cases mineral rights are attained for each land area.
Does this clarify the issue to you or is there maybe a better question to be asked?
Quite interesting topic. I’ve seen pits at old well sites that were basically brine pits with salt everywhere. I guess it’s actually lithium or bromide
