Just an FYI, if you don't have a clear title for the rights in your name. In other words, maybe you inherited them from a family member and ownership was never formally transferred to you either by a Probate or a will, you could run into problems when it comes down to it. That's the part nobody wants to tell you when they are throwing money at you. It's pretty annoying really, I think the hope by most of these guys trying to buy stuff is the less the mineral rights owner knows, the better and sometimes they get lucky by lowballing AND actually getting somebody who owns title to the rights. In many cases the transfer of ownership is so old, the records are very difficult to locate so if you don't know what you're looking for, it can be tough. For the oil/gas companies leasing the land, they are good with a death certificate but to actually sell and transfer ownership, you need a probate.