STATE
Mining claims in New Mexico not a record (correction)
Nearly 10,000 mining claims have been staked in New Mexico over the last four years, reflecting renewed interest in gold, copper and uranium
CORRECTION: The story below has been significantly changed to account for undercounts of historic mining data initially analyzed by New Mexico Wild.
Over the last four years, companies have staked nearly 10,000 mining claims in New Mexico in search of minerals like gold, copper and uranium, reflecting a renewed interest in extracting resources from the state amid high mineral prices and a federal regulatory environment that has pared back regulations to boost domestic energy production.
Federal Bureau of Land Management records show that, since 2022, the number of claims companies have staked each year has exceeded 1,600, which is the average number of claims since 2000. The last time the state saw similar sustained interest was in the late 1970s, when the Grants Mineral Belt produced most of the nation鈥檚 uranium for Cold War uranium production.
In late July, Source NM erroneously reported that the volume of mining claims in the last four years was more than the entire 20th century, even accounting for the 1970s uranium boom. That analysis was based on data compiled by New Mexico Wild, an environmental advocacy group that is organizing community and governmental pushback to an array of new mining efforts across the state.
However, Bjorn Frederickson, New Mexico Wild鈥檚 Conservation Director, alerted Source NM to significant flaws in the organization鈥檚 data analysis that Source NM later replicated.
For one, the organization inadvertently excluded thousands of 鈥渃losed鈥� claims from its analysis, which occur when a company stakes a claim for mining but later walks away from it for unspecified reasons.
Additionally, according to Frederickson, data from before 1976, when Congress improved mining recordkeeping through the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, is unreliable. That means the organization no longer believes BLM data regarding the 75 years before that law accurately reflects the number of mining claims.
鈥淭he end result of this is that the story we鈥檇 started telling about this data 鈥� that we are seeing an unprecedented boom in mining claims staked 鈥� is significantly inaccurate because it overlooks these previous boomtimes in uranium claims, not to mention many other claims previously staked but now closed,鈥� Frederickson told Source NM in an email.
In fact, including the 鈥渃losed鈥� claims data in a review of historic mining claims shows that the 1970s uranium boom eclipsed the amount of recent mining speculation occurring in New Mexico. In 1978 alone, companies filed more than 22,000 mining claims, more than 10 times the number of claims staked so far in 2026.
Staking a claim marks the first step before drilling and signals companies鈥� belief that minerals exist at sufficient quantities to be profitable. Claims are often exploratory in nature, and any drilling or digging first requires environmental and other reviews at the state and federal level.
Still, the full picture shows a clear increase in mining claims in recent years. Already in 2026, nearly 2,000 claims have been filed, marking a steady increase since 2022, when a little more than 1,600 claims were filed.
鈥淚t is safe to say we鈥檙e seeing an uptick in recent years based on averages over the past quarter century,鈥� Frederickson said.
