Verdera Energy advances West Largo uranium project in McKinley County
Verdera Energy moved ahead on its 3,840-acre West Largo uranium project near Grants, just as the county's legacy mine cleanup and old resource estimates hang over the plan.
Verdera Energy has moved its West Largo uranium project forward in McKinley County, a 3,840-acre property on the north-central edge of the Grants Uranium District, about 25 miles north of Grants. The company said on May 28 that it had begun preparing an independent NI 43-101 technical report for the property and is also pursuing a drill-permit application for work aimed at uranium mineralization near higher-grade historical intercepts.
The West Largo tract is described by Verdera as a 100%-owned advanced uranium property, with most of the land held through deeded mineral rights and another 75 unpatented lode claims. The company says the planned drill program is meant to confirm historical data and test whether mineralization extends beyond earlier resource boundaries. Verdera said the technical report is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Verdera’s posted historical estimate for West Largo lists 2.8 million tons indicated grading 0.30% eU3O8, equal to 16.9 million pounds of U3O8, plus 64,546 tons inferred grading 0.217% eU3O8, equal to 280,130 pounds of U3O8. Those numbers place the project inside a district that has already produced on a massive scale. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the Grants Mining District was the main center of uranium extraction and production in New Mexico from the 1950s through the late 1990s.
New Mexico Tech’s uranium resources review says more than 340 million pounds of U3O8 were produced from Grants district deposits between 1948 and 2002, with at least 403 million pounds still listed as unmined resources. A 2024 peer-reviewed article went further, calling the Grants uranium district the largest uranium-producing district in the United States during the Cold War period. That history gives the West Largo push a sharper local edge than a routine exploration update.
The legacy is not abstract. The EPA says cleanup of abandoned uranium mines is still underway in the Grants Mining District and on the Navajo Nation, where contamination from earlier mining continues to shape public scrutiny of new uranium proposals. As Verdera advances its technical work and permit application, McKinley County is again being asked to weigh the promise of domestic uranium production against the unresolved costs left by the last mining boom.
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