New mining proposals are emerging in rural and Tribal areas, including the Gila, Otero Mesa, Greater Chaco Canyon, and the Rio Chama. These landscapes carry deep cultural, ecological, and spiritual value for New Mexico’s communities. Proposed mining puts scarce water supplies, wildlife habitat, air quality, night skies, and sacred sites at risk. For communities in uranium mining regions especially, these threats echo decades of contamination and decisions made without their participation.

In the Rio Chama, a Canadian company has proposed exploratory uranium drilling in the Carson National Forest near Canjilon, the first step toward mining a four-mile stretch of the Chama Basin. In response, New Mexico’s congressional delegation introduced the Chama Basin Watershed Protection Act (S. 5282 and H.R. 10054) in August 2026. The bill would permanently close federal land in the Rio Chama Watershed to new mining claims, protecting the water that acequias, Tribal communities, ranchers, and rural families depend on. Learn more about the legislation.

Public pressure works. This summer, Canadian mining company Almadex walked away from its plan to explore more than 130 gold and silver claims in the Antelope Pass area of the Bootheel, a public-lands haven for lizards and dark skies. Local conservation groups credited the community’s pushback for the reversal, including a petition with 1,600 signatures and packed public meetings. Read about the win.

Help us fight back! Sign the petitions below to tell decision-makers that our wilderness, our water, and our communities are not for sale.