by Patrick Lohmann, SourceNM
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.
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, N.M., forest spokesperson Zach Behrens told Source NM on Wednesday. Canjilon is about 20 miles north of Ghost Ranch in Abiquíu, common landscapes in famed artist Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings.
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 “short-term staging” for a roughly 30-day operation, Behrens said.
Gamma Resources did not respond to a Source NM’s 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 “Mesa Arc Project.”
The company also published an investor presentation dated March 2026 that notes New Mexico’s “historical deposits remain idle due to past market conditions, representing low-hanging fruit for resource growth.” In addition to the “Mesa Arc Project,” the company is also seeking investors for another development it dubbed the “Green River Project” in Southwest Utah.
According to the company, “historic work” has identified nearly 3 million pounds of triuranium octoxide, commonly known as “yellowcake” uranium, in the area it seeks to drill.
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.
“Management believes the Company is uniquely positioned to benefit from the unprecedented policy and market tailwinds reshaping the U.S. nuclear landscape,” Gamma officials wrote in a news release March 16.
Behrens, however, noted that the Forest Service has only begun its review of the Gamma’s “notice of intent” filed with the agency on Feb. 23. The review will determine whether the uranium exploration would cause “significant surface disturbance” and therefore require a full environmental review under the federal National Environmental Policy Act review.
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 “to identify environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic considerations,” Behrens said in an email Wednesday.
“The Forest Service is committed to a transparent, science‑based process as required under federal minerals and NEPA regulations,” he wrote.
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’s push to expand domestic energy production.
Early in Trump’s second term, the Cibola National Forest deemed two long-dormant uranium mines near Mount Taylor as “priority projects,” and a federal permitting council has sought to fast-track the mine’s federal approvals. Companies behind both mines have since made steady progress on both state and federal permitting applications.
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.
“We’re against it,” he said. “We’ve 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’t want to see that anymore.”
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.
“You can go back to the beginning of time, and the same thing they did to our grandparents they’re doing to us right now,” he said.