Close to 300 people turned out last night in Custer for the Forest Service’s public meeting about F3 Gold’s Newark gold exploration project. Almost everybody was against the project! Native people and non-Indian people standing together to protect water! The F3 Gold representatives left early. There will be an extension to the comment period, and there will be an opportunity for people to get together and write comments on the project.

F3 Gold’s Newark Drilling Exploration project is immediately West of Custer.

UNITY: Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, Dakota Rural Action, NDN Collective, and others have been working steadily to alert people and encouraged them to attend last night’s meeting in Custer (population of 1,950) and it worked.  Thank you all for attending. 

Check out the articles and news reports below! And yes, the Rapid City Journal headline is alarming, but there’s the “permitting process” that the FS must go through, so just stay on track and get your public comment sent in (click here). The Journal covered a lot and also included images of the tribal letters and maps. Watch our Public Comment Opportunity – Federal Level page for updates.

Rapid City Journal:

Forest Service says Black Hills gold exploration project will continue, regardless of public outcry

Published: Feb 17, 2023

CUSTER — There was collective outrage Thursday as several hundred people gathered for a public meeting on a proposed exploratory gold drilling project in Custer County when Hell Canyon District Ranger Rob Hoelscher answered “yes” to the question, “Will this project be approved regardless of what we say?”

Minnesota-based F3 Gold, who recently came under fire in the Black Hills for a gold mining exploration project near Jenny Gulch in the Pactola area, is proposing 39 drill sites across five acres of Black Hills National Forest land west of Custer to search for gold. Access would be via public roads, like Upper French Creek Road via Highway 16, with about 5,500 linear feet of temporary access alignments. … Read more.

KOTA TV:

Tension rises over possible mining in the Custer area

Published: Feb. 17, 2023 at 9:59 AM MST

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Custer community members voiced concern Thursday at a National Forest Service meeting about the future of a possible mining exploration.

The Hell Canyon Ranger District in Custer is reviewing an exploration project to search for gold and other precious minerals. While the project is slated to start in May of this year, the community of Custer has some concerns about the project.

“I want answers” “What do they want to do with this? If they explore, are they just going to make a gold mine? Are they going to be processing that ore here?” some community members said during the meeting. Many of the comments focused around water and the possible minerals that could get into it. The community also voiced frustration over not knowing who to talk to, in order to shut the project down. … Read more and watch the Newscast.

Information from the Hell Canyon Ranger District on how to comment on this project:

Email at: comments-rocky-mountain-black-hills-hell-canyon@usda.gov with “Newark Exploration Drilling Project” as the subject for your email.

Handwritten comments can be mailed via US Postal Service to: Rob Hoelscher, District Ranger 1019 North 5th Street, Custer, SD 57730

Comments may also be hand-delivered to the address above; verbal comments can also be taken by calling our office at 605-673-9301.

Comments submitted, including names and addresses of commenters, are public information.

For your convenience, a copy of this scoping letter and the attached map, the accepted Plan of Operations, and other supporting documents can be found on the project website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=63527

You can also view and download documents from: https://usfs-public.app.box.com/…/folder/193669874743