The Ambrosia Lake mining district of New Mexico, is a sub-district of the Uranium Belt. It is located 25 miles north of Grants, New Mexico. The Rio Algom site is part of the larger Ambrosia Lake mining district, which consists of approximately 30 to 40 mines that are, or were owned and operated by a number of different companies. Seventeen mines are located within approximately three miles of the Rio Algom site. Land uses within two miles of the site are grazing, utilities, and mine reclamation activities.

The Rio Algom-Ambrosia Lake site began processing ore in 1958, and processed approximately 33 million tons of ore through 1985. The site continued to be an active uranium production facility through December 2002. Site reclamation activities commenced in 1989 with some work on the top surface of the largest tailings cell. There are three tailings/waste cells situated adjacent to each other at the Rio Algom site: the large Tailings Cell 1, Tailings Cell 2 to the west of Cell 1, and a small Cell 3 east of Cell 1 that was used to dispose of contaminated windblown material.

Reclamation of Cell 1 is complete, and cover construction of Cells 2 and 3 is still ongoing. Reclamation activities have at times included unlined evaporation pond residue excavation and disposal, contaminated windblown soil cleanup, tailings impoundment reclamation, surface water erosion protection feature construction, and mill building demolition.