As of Nov. 13, 2020, according to the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) spokesperson, Lou Conroy, they are “Pausing” the publication of the DRAFT Environmental Assessment on F3 Gold’s Jenny Gulch Gold Exploration project.  The reason for this “Pause” is that due to the pandemic they are finding it difficult to conduct tribal consultation. 

BHNF noted that “until we (BHNF) can meet our obligation and conduct [tribal] consultation thoroughly.”  They hope to have a DRAFT ready for comment by, late winter or early spring of 2021.

The BHNF’s “Pause” will allow us to take a little breather on this one threat.  However, there is still Mineral Mountain Resources, Golden Meadows gold exploration, just to name a few.  And, there are more extraction companies eyeballing the Black Hills for gold or other rare earths exploration, which leads to larger destructive mines.

But for now, F-3 Gold will have to wait until tribal consultation is completed.  We applaud the BHNF for recognizing that Tribal Consultation is the focus here.

Looking back on this Project: In October of 2019, the BHNF and F3 signed a Memorandum of Understanding.  The agreement requires F3 Gold to select and pay a consultant to conduct an environmental assessment of F3 Gold’s proposed exploratory drilling project near Silver City in the central region of the Black Hills, about 20 miles west of Rapid City, immediately upstream from Pactola Reservoir, which is Rapid City’s water supply.

For more information on this gold mining project, and other projects like this one, please see this past Rapid City Journal article that explains more: https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/environmental-assessment-to-begin-for-silver-city-drilling-plan/article_9bd0c2a5-eb29-5f6d-a47e-5a177197fc0b.html

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