{"id":53826,"date":"2026-03-26T16:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/canadian-based-company-seeks-exploratory-permit-to-drill-uranium-in-northern-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T22:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:50:43","slug":"canadian-based-company-seeks-exploratory-permit-to-drill-uranium-in-northern-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/canadian-based-company-seeks-exploratory-permit-to-drill-uranium-in-northern-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian-based company seeks exploratory permit to drill uranium in northern New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gamma
Gamma Resources Ltd is seeking Carson National Forest approval to dig up to 12, 500-foot-deep mines to search for uranium near Canjilon, New Mexico, Forest Service officials told Source NM on Wednesday. Pictured is Canjilon Lake. Courtesy U.S. Forest Service<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Vancouver-based uranium company is seeking federal approval to conduct exploratory uranium drilling within the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.<\/p>\n

Gamma Resources Ltd. issued a notice of intent late last month to the Carson National Forest, proposing to drill up to 12 exploratory boreholes up to 500 feet deep near Canjilon, New Mexico, forest spokesperson Zach Behrens told Source NM on Wednesday. Canjilon is about 20 miles north of Ghost Ranch in Abiqu\u00edu, common landscapes in famed artist Georgia O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s paintings.<\/p>\n

If the Forest Service approves the Gamma exploratory project, the company will also build temporary drill pads, carve roughly 800 feet of new roads to drill sites and do other \u201cshort-term staging\u201d for a roughly 30-day operation, Behrens said.<\/p>\n

Gamma Resources did not respond to a Source NM\u2019s email and phone call Wednesday seeking comment. However, on its website, the company states it hopes to extract uranium from a four-mile stretch of uranium-rich deposits in the Chama Basin as part of what it has dubbed the \u201cMesa Arc Project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company also published an investor presentation dated March 2026 that notes New Mexico\u2019s \u201chistorical deposits remain idle due to past market conditions, representing low-hanging fruit for resource growth.\u201d In addition to the \u201cMesa Arc Project,\u201d the company is also seeking investors for another development it dubbed the \u201cGreen River Project\u201d in Southwest Utah.<\/p>\n

According to the company, \u201chistoric work\u201d has identified nearly 3 million pounds of triuranium octoxide, commonly known as \u201cyellowcake\u201d uranium, in the area it seeks to drill.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the company seeks to drill between 10 and 12 6,500-feet holes to extract uranium, and it anticipates beginning drilling as early as next month, subject to Forest Service approvals. Last week, the company announced it had hired an environmental consulting firm to conduct a resource survey in the area and to ensure the company meets federal cultural resource protection regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagement believes the Company is uniquely positioned to benefit from the unprecedented policy and market tailwinds reshaping the U.S. nuclear landscape,\u201d Gamma officials wrote in a news release March 16.<\/p>\n

Behrens, however, noted that the Forest Service has only begun its review of the Gamma\u2019s \u201cnotice of intent\u201d filed with the agency on Feb. 23. The review will determine whether the uranium exploration would cause \u201csignificant surface disturbance\u201d and therefore require a full environmental review under the federal National Environmental Policy Act review.<\/p>\n

If a NEPA review is necessary, the Forest Service would begin a scoping report, consulting local governments, conservation districts, acequias, grazing permittees and the public at large \u201cto identify environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic considerations,\u201d Behrens said in an email Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Forest Service is committed to a transparent, science\u2011based process as required under federal minerals and NEPA regulations,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The proposal marks the latest sign of renewed interest in uranium mining in New Mexico amid a spike in uranium prices and President Donald Trump\u2019s push to expand domestic energy production.<\/p>\n

Early in Trump\u2019s second term, the Cibola National Forest deemed two long-dormant uranium mines near Mount Taylor as \u201cpriority projects,\u201d and a federal permitting council has sought to fast-track the mine\u2019s federal approvals. Companies behind both mines have since made steady progress on both state and federal permitting applications.<\/p>\n

Moises Morales, a Rio Arriba County commissioner who lives in Canjilon, told Source NM on Tuesday that he learned about the proposal last month during a meeting with Forest Service officials. He said he is adamantly opposed to the project and is already mobilizing opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re against it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of bad things happening in the Navajo Nation, how they lost their animals and all those people got sick with cancer. I don\u2019t want to see that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to being a commissioner, Morales is a longtime advocate for land grant heirs in the area who lost their land to the federal Forest Service and private interests when New Mexico became part of the United States more than a century ago. He said new uranium mining on the former land grant would constitute the latest federal abuse of land it stole from rightful owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go back to the beginning of time, and the same thing they did to our grandparents they\u2019re doing to us right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Source NM is an independent, nonprofit news organization that shines a light on governments, policies and public officials.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County commissioner says he\u2019s mobilizing opposition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,239,138,29,1897],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mining","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter","tag-uranium"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53826"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}