NEWS FLASH! Ponderosa Project Comment Period Started today, 6/20/2025. Watch for details coming up.
There are three new gold projects at various stages of development that have recently become active in the northern Black Hills. With gold prices at all-time highs, interest in new gold mining is also high. Gold is not a strategic or critical mineral, and the United States does not need more – it currently exports gold. The vast majority of gold is used for jewelry or gold bars and other means of storing the mineral.
Volney Project
The project that is in the earliest stages of development is the “Volney project,” which is proposed exploration drilling by Lion Rock Resources (SD) Inc. Lion Rock is a Canadian company that is interested in both gold and lithium in the Black Hills.
The company’s President and CEO also heads up Badlands Resources. Badlands currently owns the project formerly owned by Mineral Mountain Resources, which did gold drilling around Rochford. Badlands is in the process of selling that project, now known as the Bella Project, to Firetail Resources Ltd., an Australian company.
Confused? That’s the way mining companies like it.
Meanwhile, Lion Rock’s “Volney project” is located on privately-owned land in the Tinton area in the northern Black Hills on the Wyoming border. They want to drill from 78 drill pads, all within two mile-square sections. Drill holes could be up to 4000 feet long, and could be vertical or at an angle. Each drill pad could include as many as 8 drill holes, for a potential impact of 624 holes.
As this project is on privately-controlled land, all the company has to do is pay a fee, give the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources notice that it plans to drill, and abide by any conditions the DANR puts on their project. More information is available on our website at https://bhcleanwateralliance.org/gold/other-projects/ [The EXNI application is included]
Ponderosa Project
A second gold drilling project is proposed by Solitario Resources of Colorado, which recently started the Golden Crest drilling project on the west side of Spearfish Canyon. The Ponderosa project is nearby – just south and west of Cheyenne Crossing in an area that also feeds water into Spearfish Creek.
The Ponderosa project would be much larger than the Golden Crest project, with 43 drill pads. Again, multiple holes could be drilled from each pad, and drilling could be vertical or at an angle to a depth of up to 3281 feet. Drilling would take place 24 hours a day for 5 to 7 days a week. Lights and increased traffic, including regular pick-up and water truck travel, would disrupt wildlife, peace, and quiet. This drilling would also be disruptive because the border of the Ponderosa project is 1.1 miles from tribally-controlled land that hosts important ceremonies on a regular basis.
Solitario has requested permission from the US Forest Service for this drilling, and the public environmental review process is expected to begin soon. At that time, individuals, groups, and government will have 30 days to comment on the proposed drilling. Watch our website (which includes the project application), email notices, and social media for updated information. And be sure to comment.
Dakota Gold
The third proposed new gold project in the northern Black Hills is a plan by Dakota Gold, a Lead-based company. Dakota Gold has extensive land holdings and mining claims in Lawrence County and has done extensive exploration drilling in the Richmond Hill and Maitland areas over the last few years.
The company has now turned to planning for a large-scale gold mine in this area, with an initial focus on Richmond Hill. Richmond Hill drains into Spearfish Canyon and Spearfish Creek from the east and is north of the Wharf open pit gold mine. Dakota Gold’s proposal is anticipated to be an open pit, heap leach operation, which is to say it will completely strip the landscape and use cyanide to remove the gold from other rock. This process typically involves destruction of waterways, landscapes, and even towns. The Wharf mine, which is currently the only large-scale mine in the Black Hills, has had almost 200 spills and leaks and destroyed square miles of hills and land.
Dakota Gold says it wants to mine starting in 2029. To do this, they would have to get a large-scale mining permit from the state Board of Minerals and Environment, permission from Lawrence County, and other permits. While the timing is still unclear, we expect the company to file for its large-scale mining permit in 2026. At that time, there will be opportunities for individuals, groups, and governments to get involved in the efforts to stop the permit. Again, watch for updates.
We do not need more gold or more gold mining. Mining gold primarily benefits large international companies — several of which are involved with the smaller companies that are active in the Black Hills — and their stockholders. The Black Hills are unceded treaty territory and sacred to the Lakota people, as well as being special to millions of visitors and outdoor recreationists per year. We do not want companies’ short-term profits to create more long-term destruction and water contamination in the Black Hills.
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