Mineral Rights Value in 2025 – Rules of Thumb + Calculator

If you’re thinking about selling your mineral rights, or just curious what they might be worth, this article is absolutely essential.

Understanding the value of your mineral rights isn’t as simple as checking a price online or asking your neighbor what they got. There are dozens of factors that impact value, and if you don’t know what to look for, you could leave substantial money on the table.

This article breaks down everything you need to know in clear, simple terms.  No industry jargon, no fluff.

You’ll learn how mineral rights are valued, what buyers are looking for, and why getting multiple offers is the only way to know what they’re really worth.

Important:  If you have an offer to sell mineral rights, do not sell until you get a free consultation with our company.  We can quickly help you evaluate the offer and determine if the offer is fair.

We’ll cover the following topics:

• Understanding Mineral Rights Value
• Estimating Mineral Rights Value
• Calculating Mineral Rights Value
• Average Price Per Acre for Mineral Rights
• How to Determine EXACTLY What Your Mineral Rights are Worth
• Mineral Rights Appraisals
• Free Consultation – Mineral Rights Value

This article will only take a few minutes to read, but you’ll walk away with a clear understanding of what your mineral rights are worth.

The most important thing to understand about mineral rights value is that there is no way to know the exact value until you sell. However, we can use some “rules of thumb” to help us estimate the value of mineral rights.

Why is it impossible to know the exact value until you sell?  The reason is that each mineral rights ownership is unique.

There are 5 factors that dramatically impact the value of your mineral rights.

1. Net Mineral Acres Owned:  The most important factor is how many net mineral acres you own.  You are paid royalty income based on how many net mineral acres you own out of the total unit.  For example, if there is a 640 acre unit and you have 20 net mineral acres, you have just 3.1% of the total acres in the unit.  However, if you have 90 net mineral acres in a 640 acre unit, you have 14% of the unit.  The more of the unit you own, the more you get paid.

2. Royalty Rate:  The royalty rate determines how much of the oil and gas produced gets paid to you after the oil and gas operators take their share.  The higher the royalty rate, the more money you make.

3. Timing: The value of mineral rights is very closely related to the price of oil and/or gas.  Ultimately you own the oil and gas underground.  If the value of that oil and gas goes up or down, the value of what you own goes up or down.   However, the value is not going up or down on a daily basis.  Mineral buyers look at the average price of oil and gas over the trailing 6 to 12 months.  Once a mineral buyer knows how to buy mineral rights, they know that the long-term average price is the important factor to consider.

4. Royalty Income:  Your current royalty income has a very large impact on the value.  If you are getting consistent royalty income over $2,500+/month, this is going to appeal to a larger audience of mineral buyers.  The reason is that mineral buyers get an immediate return on their investment.

5. Potential Income:  The last factor is the future upside potential.  This is the hardest factor to estimate!  The question is how much income will be generated in the future and when will that income start?   Some mineral buyers will put $0 value on the future upside.  They only look at current royalty income.  Other buyers will pay $5,000,000 for mineral rights that only make $10/month based upon what the mineral rights will generate in the future.  This factor alone is what causes you to see offers that vary widely from one buyer to the next.

There are many other factors that affect the value of mineral rights.  While those factors are also important, the factors above are what swings the value dramatically.

Due to the factors above, estimating the value of mineral rights can be a challenge.  There are many factors that affect the value of mineral rights.

However, we can estimate mineral rights value using some rules of thumb.  These mineral rights value rules of thumb can help you get at least a rough idea of what your mineral rights are worth.

The rule of thumb for mineral rights value is based upon the status of your mineral rights.

Estimate Mineral Rights Value – 3 Stages of Ownership:

Non-Producing: If there is no active lease on your mineral rights, and you don’t get royalty income, you have non-producing mineral rights.  The rule of thumb for mineral rights value when they are non-producing is $0/acre to $1,000/acre.  In many cases, the value is $0.  The only time you can expect to get more than $0 is if you have an offer to sell OR you have a recently expired (within the last 12 months) lease.   This acreage is considered pure speculation and has $0 value because it will likely be years (decades) before it produces income.

Leased:  If your acreage has an active lease agreement, you can expect to sell for about 2x to 3x your lease bonus.  For example, if you had 10 net acres and you leased them for $3,000/acre, you would expect to sell mineral rights for about $6,000/acre to $9,000/acre.

Producing:  If you have producing mineral rights, this means you get paid royalties on a monthly basis.   Some mineral owners get paid every few months if the value is less than $50/month.   The value of mineral rights that are producing is broken down into two components:

1. Cash Flow Value:  The cash flow value is based upon your royalty income.  To determine the cash flow value of your mineral rights, find the average of your last 3 months of royalty income and then multiply this number by 3 years to 6 years.  (Hint:  Use the mineral rights value calculator below to estimate the cash flow value of your mineral rights)

2. Upside Potential:  If there is space to drill additional wells on your acreage in the future, your mineral rights have additional value in the upside potential.  If/when those wells are drilled, the value of the acreage will be higher.  This value is very subjective and depends on how a mineral buyer evaluates the upside.

The estimated mineral rights values above are just estimates!  If you are curious about estimating mineral rights value for your mineral rights, get a free consultation.  There is no obligation and no pressure!

If you want to calculate mineral rights value, use our royalty calculator below.

The purpose of this royalty calculator is to show you what producing mineral rights are worth.  This is the “cash flow value” component of producing mineral rights mentioned above.

As a general rule of thumb, you can expect your producing royalties to be worth about 3 years to 6 years of your average monthly income.

Using the oil royalty calculator above, you can get a general idea what your producing mineral rights are worth.

Keep in mind that this is only the cash flow component of the value.  Your royalty income alone has value, and that is what this mineral rights value calculator is showing you.

In addition to the cash flow value, your producing royalties may also have upside value.  There is no way to calculate mineral rights value for the upside potential.  Each mineral buyer will run their own analysis.

It’s important to understand that the cash flow value may also be incorrect if you have new wells.

If you have only been receiving royalty income for a few months after new wells were drilled, this means you have flush production.  Flush production means your royalty income will be extremely high in the first 3 to 5 years of production.  It will rapidly drop off during that time.  If you have new wells that just started producing, the mineral rights value calculator above will not be accurate.

Below, you can see an example of what flush production looks like.

As you can see, you may be receiving $10,000/month, but if the oil and gas wells generating the income are only 12 months old, that income is going to drop quickly.

A common question we hear from mineral owners is, “What’s the average price per acre for mineral rights?” While it seems like a simple way to estimate value, the reality is that average price per acre can vary wildly!  Not just from state to state, but from county to county, and even within the same county!

Location, production history, current operator activity, and future drilling potential all play a major role in determining what your mineral rights are worth. Two mineral owners in the same county could get drastically different offers depending on these factors. That’s why relying on an average price per acre can often lead to misleading expectations.

If you’re curious about what mineral rights in your area might be worth, we highly recommend checking out our full article on the topic. We break down exactly why average values don’t tell the full story and what really impacts the price per acre.

👉 Read our full article on Average Price Per Acre for Mineral Rights

Let’s cut to the chase. There’s only one way to know exactly what your mineral rights are worth:

You have to put them on the open market and create competition.

You can look up estimates online, talk to a few people, or gather some offers. But none of that will give you a true answer. Mineral rights don’t have a set price. The value changes based on the location, the buyer, their drilling plans, how badly they want your acreage, and much more.

Most mineral owners end up underselling simply because they don’t have access to the right buyers. Mineral buyers know this. They use it to their advantage. It’s common for buyers to start with a low offer and then bump it up a little to make it feel like you negotiated a better deal. In reality, you are nearly always leaving thousands of dollars on the table.

If you want to determine exactly what your mineral rights are worth, you need multiple buyers competing for your property. That competition is the only thing that reveals the true market value.

At Texas Royalty Brokers, this is what we do every day. We list your mineral rights in front of a wide network of serious buyers. These buyers are actively looking for deals, and they know they’re competing with others. That’s how our clients regularly end up with offers that are 10 to 30 percent higher than what they would have accepted on their own.

Don’t guess the value of your mineral rights. Let Texas Royalty Brokers show you exactly what they’re worth.  Contact us for a free consultation. 

A mineral rights appraisal might sound like a smart first step, but the truth is, it’s just an educated guess.

The problem with a mineral rights appraisal is that it typically looks at the total reserves to make an estimate.  The appraisal then assumes all of that oil and gas will be extracted and sold in the near future.  In reality, that is not how it works.  Even if they get the amount of reserves correct, which is just a guess, knowing when that oil and gas will be sold and what the price of oil and gas will be at that time is impossible.

What ends up happening is a mineral rights appraisal comes up with a value that is substantially higher than reality.  Reserves are useful for large operators to estimate what they own, but it’s not practical for mineral owners.

Your oil and gas mineral rights are worth what real mineral buyers are actually willing to pay TODAY.

The only way to find the true market value is by getting your minerals in front of multiple qualified buyers. Every buyer has different strategies, goals, and budgets, which can lead to big differences in what they’re willing to offer. That kind of competition is what drives the best price.

Also, you should never pay for a mineral rights appraisal. Some companies charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for estimates that are often way off.

At Texas Royalty Brokers, we give you a free estimate and bring your minerals directly to serious buyers through a competitive bidding process. That’s how you get top dollar, with no upfront cost and no pressure.

Want to dig deeper? Check out our full article on Mineral Rights Appraisals.

If you are curious about mineral rights value, we can help.

Our team is happy to answer your questions.  We can do a free analysis of your mineral rights and help you get a better understanding of what the value might be.  There is no way to know for sure until you get competitive bids, but we can help you better understand the value of your mineral rights.

Fill out the contact form below and our team will be in touch shortly.  There is no obligation and no pressure when you get a free consultation with our company.