Annual Report 3 - New Mexico - Energy, Minerals and Natural ...

Mining and Minerals Division
ANNUAL REPORT 2010
Charles Thomas
A Message from Acting Division Director Charles Thomas
Acting Division Director
The Mining and Minerals Division (MMD) seeks to serve the public by ensuring the responsible use and reclamation of land impacted
by mining. We also encourage innovative approaches to mine reclamation and strive to ensure the involvement of the public in all mining
related activity.
Through the last eight years, MMD has been committed to increasing opportunities for public access to agency documents and services.
Advancing GIS (geographic information systems) capabilities resulted in more public access to maps and data. Increased public notice
requirements within our coal regulations now allow for more meaningful public participation in agency actions.
MMD is currently in the process of reviewing permit applications for two new large-scale uranium mines. The permit applications bring
a unique set of challenges not only in acknowledging the nature of the ore to be extracted, but also in the proximity of the proposed mines
to the Mt. Taylor Traditional Cultural Property, a sacred area to many of New Mexico’s Pueblo Indian Tribes and the Navajo Nation. The
continued interest in uranium has also returned the spotlight to the previous cycle of uranium mining in New Mexico during the midtwentieth
century, which left a legacy of abandoned uranium mines, most of which were never reclaimed.
Over the past eight years, by pursuing a strategy to increase the involvement of both private consulting firms and the appropriate federal
government agencies, MMD has been able to dramatically increase the amount of resources applied to abandoned mine sites, resulting in
hundreds of additional sites being reclaimed and safeguarded in every corner of the state. As one example of this, using a combination of
funds made available from the Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Program and funding from the Bureau of Land Management, MMD
was able to finalize a project initiated in 2006 to conduct field assessments of the known legacy abandoned uranium mines throughout
New Mexico.
This year MMD made significant progress in an on-going investigation into the practice of using Coal Combustion By-Products (CCB)
or “coal ash” as part of mine fill at coal mines. MMD, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of New Mexico,
initiated a multi-year hydrologic investigation to evaluate the potential impacts of coal ash to groundwater at the San Juan Coal Mine.
Without the dedicated and resourceful efforts of the MMD staff, little of this would be possible. Their hard work and creative solutions
have made New Mexico a leader in the field of mine reclamation. I hope you enjoy reviewing further information on our initiatives,
accomplishments and mineral statistics.
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