No way in heck I'm giving up my mineral rights!  My grandfather's parents bought a farm in East Texas when he was 3 months old.  He divided up the farm among his children.  My sister and I both got a share when our parents died.  (Actually, it was more complicated than that, but we have a share.)  For years, the income off the mineral rights was extremely minimal, but my mother didn't sell the mineral rights when she told a few acres, and my sister and I held on to ours, and we now get a nice bonus each month from the gas well that's on that property. 

Mineral rights are valuable and shouldn't be sold casually, is my call.

Well, this is easily answered, because my sister (12 years older than I) IS retired.  They choose to get their royalty checks every month. 

We've had enormous offers to buy us out over the past few years, from various companies that send us letters with checks in them.  However, every time we do the math, no matter how enormous, assuming things go on as they have been, we come out better not selling.  It's a gamble, but so far a relatively short-term one.  And considering that we inherited the property, rather than buying and making payments, and that it's been in the family 5 generations now (counting my kids, 7 counting my sister's grandkids), it's not likely to come up any time soon.  My daughter does NOT want me to sell the land, and I'm not interested in selling the mineral rights.

To anyone else in the same position, I'd say, do the math.