New Mexico land commissioner announces uranium mining ban on state trust lands

[Marlin]

New Mexico land commissioner announces uranium mining ban on state trust lands

https://sourcenm.com/2026/09/04/new-mexico-land-commissioner-announces-uranium-mining-ban-on-state-trust-lands/

[Core Content]

New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard signed an executive order banning new uranium mining projects across more than 13 million acres of state trust lands. The directive aims to prevent potential environmental and public health contamination from future extraction while prioritizing the cleanup of approximately 50 abandoned legacy sites located on state properties. Future land commissioners retain the authority to overturn the order.

Garcia Richard said Friday that the risks of environmental and health harms from uranium mining outweigh any revenue to state coffers.

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard on Friday signed an executive order that bans all new uranium mining projects on the more than 13 million acres of state trust lands she oversees.

Garcia Richard, a Democrat who has roughly four months left in her term and is running for lieutenant governor, said at a news conference Friday on the front steps of her office's Santa Fe headquarters that the longlasting environmental and public health impacts of uranium contamination outweigh any potential revenues to state coffers uranium mining could provide.

Read the full article at sourcenm.com:
https://sourcenm.com/2026/09/04/new-mexico-land-commissioner-announces-uranium-mining-ban-on-state-trust-lands/