Another Canadian uranium miner exploiting 1872 mining law in New Mexico

Using enriched uranium mined in New Mexico four Los Alamos scientists armed the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed over 200,000 children, women and men.

Beginning in 1958 Homestake Mining Company gouged uranium from New Mexico leaving piles of waste rock laden with selenium causing cancers and thyroid disease in its wake. In 1979 an earthen dam collapsed releasing 1,100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive and highly acidic water onto Navajo tribal lands. 

Because the Trump Organization despises Native Americans uranium mining was fast-tracked in and around Indian Country where tribes already suffer from diseases and birth defects wrought by radioactive contamination.

First American Uranium, of Vancouver, Canada, has redrafted and updated a project plan for the Red Basin Uranium/Vanadium Project in Catron County. Jenna Padilla, Forest Geologist of the Cibola National Forest, is the project lead for First American Uranium’s Red Basin revised plan of operations. Padilla said the Cibola National Forest will consult Indian Tribes, interested parties, and the general public on issues and concerns throughout the proposal and application review process. Interested parties may receive notifications through direct letters, emails, social media, public meetings or press releases.[Canadian mine company submits uranium project plan near Datil]

In July Canada-based Anfield Energy bought enCore Energy’s Marquez-Juan Tafoya uranium project in New Mexico. Texas-based enCore has uranium claims or operations in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and South Dakota.

New Mexico’s Democratic delegation is moving an amendment through Congress to the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act intending to offset decades of hardships suffered by people downwind of the atomic bomb tests in the 1940s. The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium has scheduled their 11th annual protest at the Trinity site.

Reform of the Mining Law of 1872 that enables foreign miners to gouge minerals from lands managed by the National Forest System and Bureau of Land Management has been prioritized by the Biden/Harris Administration.