Can I just go into a mine and pickaxe out a piece of iron? Or does mining companies buy the land and essentially own the entirety of it?
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Like literally all legal questions it depends on where you live.
Generally the government either issues licenses, or sells the land, but the specifics vary from country to country
Property ownership is like a bundle of sticks, the right to mine a portion of ground is just one of the sticks, it can be bought, sold, or leases independently of other components of property ownership.
Depends upon the country.
A mining company will buy or sometimes lease the land either from the government or the existing private landowner.
However they will also likely requires permission from the government at some level to actually operate the mine. This is because mining can obviously significantly affect the land around the mine site- affecting the water table, potentially causing pollution from the mining activities, abd increased road traffic for example. Additionally theyll have to convince the authorities that they can operate the mine safely. If the proposed operators can’t satisfy the authorities on such matters they bay be refused permission to operate even if they actually own the land.
Here in the UK if a new mine/quarry etc is proposed then the owners would have to seek what’s called planning permission to operate the new mine because doing so would require a change of use of the land.
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