SANTA ANA PUEBLO — Demand for uranium in the U.S. is now outstripping production 3-1, says Jon Indall, an attorney with Uranium Producers of America.
After a peak in the 1980s, domestic uranium production plummeted as prices decreased. In the last quarter of 2025, however, production was on the rise, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Seven facilities in Wyoming, Texas, Utah and Nebraska produced the entire supply.
Indall said at last week’s Nuclear in New Mexico conference, held at Santa Ana Pueblo’s Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa, his professional organization now has 20 members — an all-time high.
More growth in the industry could be coming — including projects proposed in the Carson National Forest in Northern New Mexico and near Mount Taylor in Western New Mexico. The proposal from a Canadian mining company to conduct exploratory drilling seeking uranium in the Canjilon area north of Abiquiú has drawn concern and outrage in the region, with opponents citing potential impacts to the Rio Chama watershed.
Not only does the scenic area have a rich agricultural history, but it is also a popular draw for recreation, and the river carries significant water supplies from the Colorado River basin to users downstream, including in the cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
The notice of intent to drill has caused alarm among federal and local leaders, as well as environmental and agricultural groups. The Rio Arriba County Commission adopted a resolution last week in opposition to uranium mining in the Carson, and New Mexico’s congressional delegates have taken steps to seek protections of the area from mining.
Changing federal landscape
In March 2025, President Donald Trump designated uranium as a “critical mineral,” writing in an executive order the nation’s economy and national security were threatened by an overreliance on imports for weapons and commercial fuel.
It’s long been acknowledged the U.S. Department of Energy’s supply of uranium is finite and shrinking, Indall said Monday, but the National Nuclear Security Administration indicated only this year it would soon start buying uranium to supply the nuclear weapons stockpile again.
“This is music in our ears, obviously,” Indall said. “So, we’re going to be producing for both the federal government and the stockpile and for domestic utilities as nuclear power generation expands. … I used to call the supply/demand chart Jaws, because it is huge.”
The World Nuclear Association projects a shortfall of 48 million pounds of uranium in 2027, he said. By 2040, that could reach 1.7 billion pounds without a major change in production rates.
Amid this increasing demand, eyes are turning back on New Mexico, once home to the highest-producing mining district in the country.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of uranium are still underground in the Grants Mining District, which is now the target for a handful of proposals to extract the radioactive material. While mining has tapered off in the state, there’s still a uranium enrichment facility for commercial use in Eunice.
Canadian company Gamma Resources Ltd. issued a notice of intent earlier this year to conduct exploratory drilling in the Carson National Forest in Rio Arriba County. A few projects also have been proposed by a handful of companies near Mount Taylor, which is significant to several New Mexico tribes.
With hundreds of abandoned uranium mines around the state and the Navajo Nation — and a history of health impacts among New Mexico’s uranium miners — the state’s mining legacy is tainted. The slow and costly cleanup of old mine sites has been a barrier to future mining development and has made many wary of new mining.
Legacy of mining waste
Uranium mining today can be safer and more environmentally friendly than in years past, officials said at the Nuclear in New Mexico Conference — an assertion that met with some skepticism from protesters and other critics. But many officials said the blight of abandoned mines of yesteryear could prevent a mining resurgence in the state.
“There’s negative perception that’s associated with those impacts — rightly so — and it’s sort of a debt for this industry,” said environmental engineer Ashley Arrossa, who is working on remediation projects. Arrossa spoke Monday at a panel on legacy contamination from uranium mining.
That debt has yet to be repaid in many communities.
“Is it perception or is it reality?” asked Rick Smith, the tribal historic preservation officer for the Pueblo of Laguna. “Because the reality of some of these mistakes is what we live with. The mistakes of the Jackpile Mine on Laguna Pueblo are the realities of what we’re living with today.”
The Jackpile-Paguate uranium mine operated on the Laguna Pueblo for three decades, producing millions of tons of uranium ore during its lifespan. After it stopped producing in 1982, it left behind surface water contamination that earned it Superfund status.
Other tribes and pueblos have also borne the brunt of uranium production — and the waste left behind.
Around 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from the Navajo Nation, and thousands of Diné people worked in the mines. In 1979, a uranium mill near Church Rock spilled 94 million gallons of radioactive waste into the Puerco River — the largest release of radioactive materials in the nation’s history, according to a 2014 Environmental Protection Agency report. The waste flowed through Navajo lands.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued a six-month executive order in 2024 preventing the transport of radioactive materials through tribal lands without a prior agreement after a company was found trucking uranium without approval. A 2005 order had placed a moratorium on uranium mining on the nation entirely.
Stephen Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, said the tribal government doesn’t want to see the proliferation of piles or “dumplings,” as Arrossa called them.
Etsitty said better disposal options need to be discussed.
“It’s not what we want in the Navajo Nation,” Etsitty said. “We’re blessed with 27,000 square miles of land. But if we have to take more of that for disposal, and then the long-term maintenance into the billions of years, we’re never going to be able to get the full use of all of our lands.”
Pushback to Carson plan
Around the state, groups have been pushing back against proposed uranium mining.
U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, all New Mexico Democrats, wrote a letter this month to the Carson National Forest supervisor in opposition to uranium mining in Northern New Mexico and announcing their intent to draft legislation to withdraw the Rio Chama watershed from mineral development.
A spokesperson for the forest wrote in an email to The New Mexican the U.S. Forest Service is currently reviewing the exploration proposal for completeness.
“Once complete, we would then determine the level of analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Zachary Behrens wrote. “Federal law separates exploration from mining, with each step having its own requirements. If a proposal for mining were submitted, it would trigger its own separate and rigorous regulatory review and environmental analysis.”
Supervisors for the Upper Chama Soil and Water Conservation District voted 4-0 Tuesday in favor of a resolution requesting an environmental analysis, including baseline water testing, ahead of proposed uranium exploration in the Carson.
Two days later, the Rio Arriba County Commission voted in favor of a resolution in opposition to the project entirely. The measure requested a full environmental impact statement.
Water conservation district supervisor Tirzio Lopez said a few dozen people showed up for the Tuesday meeting; typically, he can count attendees from the public on one hand.
The conservation district serves roughly 1,000 property owners, Lopez said, in Lumberton, Canjilon, Cebolla, Tierra Amarilla and surrounding communities. But he’s also concerned about downstream users of water from the Upper Chama watershed, which flows into Abiquiú Lake.
“We’re empowered and entrusted with preserving the soil and water,” Lopez said. “It’s land use for agricultural purposes as well as human use, and what I told [them] yesterday is that, ‘We don’t act on this, we have failed at doing our jobs.’ ”