USGS Central Region Energy Resources Team

Central Region Energy Resource s Team

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      Surface ownership can differ from mineral ownership for the same area. Figure 6 shows the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana, which has the largest in-place coal resources of any coal field in the contiguous U.S. (Keystone, 1997) and produces over one-fourth of the Nation's total coal (The Mining Record, 1997).    Most of the surface of the basin is privately owned, yet almost all of the coal is Federally owned. This separation of jurisdiction may become a legal issue that results in Federally owned coal resources not being developed. Our digital database identifies areas where surface ownership differs from mineral ownership.

Powder River Basin Fed. Surface Map

 Powder River Basin Fed. Coal Map
See "Federal surface management in the Powder River Basin"- Appendix 2, Figure 5 in Open-File Report 98-102, Land Status and Federal Mineral Ownership in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana: a Digital Data Set for Geographic Information Systems. See "Federal coal ownership (includes other Federal minerals)" - Appendix 2, Figure 6 in Open-File Report 98-102, Land Status and Federal Mineral Ownership in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana: a Digital Data Set for Geographic Information Systems,
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U. S. Department of the Interior
U. S. Geological Survey		 USGS Fact Sheet FS-012-98
February 1998