In Catron County New Mexico, residents of Pie Town are grappling with a recent permit application for an exploratory uranium mining project that would allow NovaCore Exploration, Inc. (the permit applicant) to drill 37 boreholes and build a new road to aid their project in the Cibola National Forest. The efforts to oppose this project have found some momentum, motivating Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard to sign an executive order banning new uranium mining leases on 13 million acres of state trust land and leading Catron County Commissioners to pass a resolution requesting that NovaCore's permit application be changed from a minimum impact permit to a regular impact permit. Still, if the permit application is approved by the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division and uranium is found, NovaCore holds up to 850 mining leases that could result in a uranium mine spanning 15,000 acres. Pie Town residents are continuing their fight to make sure that doesn't happen.

On July 2nd 2026, the Hidalgo County Board of Commissioners held a public meeting in collaboration with New Mexico Wild and the Chiricahua Regional Council to discuss the Las Cruces New Mexico Bureau of Land Management second quarter lease sales done in accordance with the mandates of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed on July 4th of 2025 requiring federal land management agencies to conduct quarterly lease sales of public land at reduced royalties in order to make it easier for oil drilling, geothermal exploration, and mining to take place on public lands throughout the country. In May of 2026, the BLM sold leases for 73 parcels of public land in New Mexico to private companies, several of which were located in the Antelope Pass area located eight miles west of Animas, New Mexico. This area serves as a vital ecological corridor connecting the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico to the Southern Rocky Mountains and representing some of the most unique biodiversity seen in all of the United States. The May BLM lease sales raise many concerns among locals as Canadian mineral exploration company began to propose plans for an open pit gold mine on the site of their newly aquired leases in Antelope Pass. In June, Ormat and Invenergy, two geothermal companies won leases sold by the BLM for the express purpose of geothermal exploration in areas of New Mexico including Antelope Pass, raising additional concerns among locals who fear for their livelihoods provided by the local academic research areas, dark sky community, ranching, and farming.