35 Mining Legacies and Environmental Remediation in the Southwest

This session focuses on environmental impacts of historical and modern mining, with an emphasis on remediation practices, community partnerships, and innovative approaches to reclaiming and monitoring impacted landscapes.

Wednesday, 20 May 2026
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Alvarado C

Addressing Community Concerns by Long Term Enviromental Dust Monitoring at the Jackpile-Paguate Abandoned Uranium Mine, Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico

Paper number: 35-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:20 AM – 9:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

The significant uranium deposits located in the Four Corners region of the Southwest USA were exploited extensively during the uranium boom of the 1950s. The environmental consequences of these mines on local communities have been extensive, but there have been minimal efforts to fully understand these effects. The Jackpile-Paguate mine on the Pueblo of Laguna, NM was one of the largest uranium mines in the world during the 1950s and 1960s. Local communities living close to the mine have continuously expressed their concerns about exposures to toxic metals derived from the mine through water and air. Despite these concerns, there has been no long-term monitoring of airborne particulate matter (PM) in or around the mine. In this study, we have established passive PM collectors within the mine site to understand the chemistry and mineralogy of airborne dust. We have also studied the erosional products of exposed ore-bearing strata within the mine and found U-bearing minerals such as carnotite, tyuyumunite, and U-bearing REE phosphate minerals with grain sizes <2.5 microns (PM2.5). These particulates can readily undergo aeolian transport. However, SEM analysis of windblown PM collected within the Jackpile mine shows no evidence of U-bearing minerals. The PM samples consistently record concentrations of U and V, measured by ICP-MS, below crustal averages. Our results imply that the mine is currently not a significant source of U-bearing PM or that SEM techniques are inadequate to detect very fine-grained (submicron) U-bearing particulates that may be present in extremely low concentrations due to dispersion.  

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410683

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