CUSTER, S.D. – A public meeting is set for Thursday to hear more from a Minnesota company that is hoping to search for gold in the southern hills.
The Hell Canyon District of the Forest Service, which covers the southern Black Hills, has opened scoping — the start of the environmental review process — for the proposed F3 Gold’s Newark Exploratory Drilling Project. This is a large gold exploration project just west of — and upstream from — Custer along French Creek.
The project has not been approved but the Forest Service wants to grant F3 Gold’s Newark Gold Exploration Project a “categorical exclusion” which would fast-track the project.
The company has identified 39 drilling sites with the possibility of adding more.
Rob Hoelscher is the District Ranger for Hell Canyon Ranger District. He said the exploration project involves drilling holes to a depth of one to two thousand feet and extracting three-inch core samples.
Proposed drilling sites are located on National Forest Service land but are close to residential areas, prompting concern from landowners.
According to Hoelscher, drill rigs would be using water to cool equipment. He said water would be obtained from municipal sources. If the company does drill, and nothing is found, they have 24 hours to fill the hole.
Hoelscher says drilling would affect local landowners for a short period of time since, “Once they’re done drilling on one of those sites they would move on to the next site.”
This is not the first attempt by F3 Gold LLC to gain approval for gold exploration in the Black Hills. At least one other site near Pactola Reservoir is still in the works, despite local and tribal opposition.
Historically, gold mining was a polluter of Black Hills waterways. Four toxic Superfund sites are the result of water pollution from the mining over the past 70 years. Whitewood Creek in the northern Black Hills was formerly so polluted with thick, gray sludge and chemicals from Homestake Mining that it was known as “Cyanide Creek.”
Gold has been mined continuously in the Black Hills since the 1870s. The Homestake mine near Lead was once the largest and deepest gold mine in North America before it closed in 2002.
There is currently one large-scale, active gold mine in the Black Hills — the Wharf Mine, also near Lead. Besides F3 Gold, there are several other companies either drilling or planning to conduct exploratory drilling for gold in the Black Hills.
The public meeting to discuss the proposed Neward F3 Gold Exploratory Drill Project is set for Thurs., Feb. 16 from 5:00-7:00p.m. at the Custer High School.
