Grants Energy announces launch of New Mexico ISR project

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

The project scope includes both Cibola and McKinley counties, where Gulf Mineral Resources Corporation identified and validated a large uranium deposit in the 1960s and 1970s including the Mt Taylor deposit, which was conventionally mined between 1980 and 1990. Mt Taylor was purchased by General Atomics affiliate Rio Grande Resources in 1991, according to information from the New Mexico Environment Department.

Commercial inquires and contracting will be managed by General Atomics' Nuclear Fuels Corporation, who told World Nuclear News that uranium production is planned to commence in the early 2030s with first permits and licence applications due over the next 12-24 months.

The company's innovative production plan combines in-situ recovery, or ISR, a widely used method of uranium extraction, with horizontal wells, a method used in oil and gas production. Combining these two proven technologies means uranium extraction will be cleaner and more efficient than ever before, Grants Energy says, and will also reduce ground disturbance and carbon emissions from the equipment used to construct the wellfields. (ISR is also sometimes referred to as in-situ leach, or ISL).

_{Precision ISR combines proven ISR and horizontal well technologies (Image: Grants Energy)}

Community benefits
 

From the mid-20th century to the 1980s, New Mexico was a hub for US uranium mining. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission currently lists only one New Mexico uranium recovery operation - Crownpoint, now owned by Laramide Resources - as licensed, although no operations have taken place. The state is also home to Urenco USA's uranium enrichment plant at Eunice, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant repository for the disposal of transuranic wastes.

The Grants Precision ISR project could potentially create more than 200 skilled, local jobs, and more than USD400 million in state and local tax revenue while minimising environmental impacts, and providing an affordable fuel for carbon-free domestic energy supply, the company said.

_{The company has already held Town Hall community engagement events (Image: Grants Energy)}

"In this initial stage, Grants Energy is focused on reaching out to members of the community to provide more detailed information about our project and identify community issues and concerns," Janet Lee Sheriff, director of communications, said in the company's 6 January announcement. "We truly understand and respect concerns surrounding uranium extraction through conventional mining technology and are dedicated to unlocking a strategic long-term energy resource responsibly and with the participation and involvement of the New Mexico community."

Separately, a new association committed to advocating for the nuclear energy industry and "empowering the people of New Mexico by fostering economic growth to benefit from their resources in a safe and sustainable manner" - of which Grants Energy is a member - was launched on 3 January. Clean Energy Association of New Mexico (CLEAN) says it is "committed to focusing on education and awareness, providing valuable resources and advocating for the safe and environmentally responsible extraction of uranium through In-Situ Recovery technology as a key component of the state's clean energy future".

Grants Energy is a subsidiary of Rio Grande Resources and an affiliate of Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd, the first uranium producer to use ISR in Australia, where the technique has now been in use for 25 years of production from the Four Mile/Beverley project.