State Leasing History
The state began offering leases for nonferrous metallic minerals in 1966. Listed below is data from over 50 years of state metallic mineral lease transactions and associated exploration between January 1966 through December 2025.
Significant summary points from the data:
88% of state nonferrous metallic mineral leases were terminated within 5 years.
97.4% of the current and historic state leased parcels for nonferrous metallic mineral had no exploration drilling on them.
Table 1: State Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Leases
(1966-2025)
Lease Status | Number of Leases | Percentage of Total |
|---|---|---|
Active | 122 | 3.2% |
Terminated | 3,713 | 96.8% |
Total | 3,835 | 100% |
Table 2: Length of State Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Leases
(1966-2025)
Terminated Leases (3,713 Leases) | Percentage of Total Terminated Leases |
|---|---|
Terminated within 5 years | 88.2% |
Terminated within 6-10 years | 9.8% |
Terminated after 10 years | 2.0% |
Active Leases (122 Leases) | Percentage of Total Active Leases |
|---|---|
Less than 5 years old | 0% |
Lease is between 5 and 10 years old | 12% |
Lease is greater than 10 years old | 88% |
Drilling and Leasing History Analysis
The DNR analyzed exploratory boreholes (drilling) on state nonferrous metallic mineral leased parcels between January 1966 through 2021. During this time there were 3,831 state metallic mineral leases issued over 25,806 approximate 40-acre leased parcel footprints. It is important to note that some of these parcels have been leased multiple times though are only counted once for this calculation.
The analysis showed that 97.4% of all state nonferrous metallic mineral leased parcels had no exploration drilling on them. There were a total of 2,366 total exploration drill holes that intersected a state leased parcel. Those drill holes intersected 663 leased parcels or 2.6% of all state leased parcels (see table 3).
Table 3: Exploration Drilling on State Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Leased Parcels
(1966 through 2021)
Number of Parcels (approximately 40 acres) | Number of Drill Holes per Parcel | Total number of Drill Holes | Percentage of Leased Parcels and Exploration Drilling |
|---|---|---|---|
25,140 | 0 | 0 | 97.4% of the leased parcels had no exploration drilling |
467 | 1 | 467 | 1.8% of the leased parcels had 1 exploration drill hole |
124 | 2-5 | 335 | 0.5% of the leased parcels had between 2 and 5 exploration drill holes |
30 | 6-10 | 337 | 0.1% of the leased parcels had between 6 and 10 exploration drill holes |
45 | 11+ | 1,227 | 0.2% of the leased parcels had greater than 11 exploration drill holes |
25,806 total leased parcels | 2,366 total drill holes | 2.6% of leased parcels had 1 or more drill holes. |