Southern hills mining exploration is hoping to find gold in the Black Hills

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - A Minnesota company is hoping to search for gold in the southern hills.

The Hell Canyon Ranger District in Custer is reviewing an exploration project to search for gold and other precious minerals.

The project has not been approved but already 39 drilling sites have been identified, F3 Gold, the Minnesota company behind the request, says they might not use all those sites.

“This project that were considering right now is an exploration project. And an exploration project is simply drilling holes in the ground to a depth of 1 thousand to 2 thousand feet at the most, and pulling out a 3 inch core. And that core material will then have evidence of minerals subsurface and that’s what this company is doing,” Rob Hoelscher, district ranger for Hell Canyon Ranger District said.

Each site is on national forest service land, and some are close to residential areas, causing concern for people living nearby.

“During that time there would be drill rigs that would be drilling the holes, they would be using water to cool their drilling equipment, that water would be obtained from municipal sources they wouldn’t be using any local water,” Hoelscher continued.

If the company does drill, and nothing is found, they have 24 hours to fill the hole.

“Once they’re done drilling on one of those sites they would move on to the next site. it would affect local residents in the area of the operation for a short period of time while they’re drilling on those sites,” said Hoelscher.

There will be a meeting Thursday night at Custer High School commons area to communicate with the local community to let residents voice their concerns about the project.

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