Solitario Resources Corp.

In any season, witnessing the beauty while cruising, or just sitting, in Spearfish Canyon, located in the Black Hills in western South Dakota, shows why it is recognized as “one of the premiere national landscapes in America.” This majestic canyon is designated as a Scenic Byway. People who love this canyon have been working to protect it. How about you? Will you Help Protect this beautiful national landscape?

Solitario Resources Corp., (formerly Solitario Zinc) a gold exploration company, received permission in 2024 from the US Forest Service, Northern Hills Ranger District, to drill at 23 sites on about 27,800 acres of mining claims as part of its Golden Crest Exploration Drilling Project. This project is south of Spearfish, SD, west of Spearfish Canyon, and east of Iron Creek Lake. Sites are located from the Big Hill area south to the Limestone Plateau. Project map.

Drilling started in this area soon after. This is a major area for mountain biking and other outdoor recreation, and many people who commented on the project before the Forest Service let it go ahead warned that it could create problems for recreationists. Less than a month after drilling began, someone riding a mountain bike came across a drill site, which was close to the trail. They reported that the noise of the drill could be heard from some distance, which would both make peaceful recreation impossible and scare off wildlife.

More disturbing, Solitario’s drillers had put a metal pipe from one area of its project to another and across the trail – and it was not on the ground – it was up in the air. This created a very dangerous situation for mountain bikers, who travel at high rates of speed in the area. The pipe was dirty, so it blended into the dirt trail, and it was very lucky that the biker saw it before hitting it and getting hurt.

This dangerous situation was reported to the Northern Hills Ranger District office in Spearfish. The Forest Service then created a sort of a wooden ramp over the pipe. The ramp was not secured well, and the situation was still dangerous to someone riding fast through the woods.

This situation demonstrated clearly that: (1) Solitario’s drilling crew was not concerned with the safety of the public; (2) Solitario’s drilling is disturbing wildlife (as many people had predicted); (3) the Forest Service is dependent on the public to identify violations by mining companies — a problem that has accelerated with the decrease in their personnel due to recent Federal budget cuts; and (4) the Forest Service does not always solve safety problems around drilling projects. It just papers them over.

These conclusions did not give the public any reason to have faith in the company or the Forest Service when it comes to gold drilling.

Meanwhile, in March of 2023, Solitario asked the US Forest Service to approve a second gold exploration project called the Ponderosa Project. This would be southwest of Cheyenne Crossing — south and east of Highway 85. The project would involve doing exploration drilling from 49 drill pads, with as many as 10 holes per drill pad.

The application for this project was on hold for some time. Then, in February 2026, the Forest Service gave the Ponderosa project a categorical exclusion – which means they let the project go ahead without doing an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement. So in total, Solitario Resources received permission to drill at 72 drill pads in the areas to the south and west of Spearfish Canyon – and upstream from the Canyon.

Additionally, the Wharf gold and silver mine, some of the Dakota Gold drilling projects, and the Dakota Gold proposal for additional mining at Richmond Hill are all upstream from Spearfish Creek on the east side of Canyon. So Spearfish Canyon is very much at risk from current and proposed gold mining activities. To protect this beautiful Canyon and Spearfish Creek, there needs to be more involvement by the concerned public in efforts to protect water and oppose mining. This means organizing events in the Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon communities, keeping a close watch on this website for opportunities to work to protect the area, and watching for mining-related activity. If you have information or want to get more involved, you can also email us at edbhcwa@gmail.com.

These Projects Threaten:

the natural environment (water, trails, wildlife, land)
the economy of the area, which is reliant upon outdoor recreation and tourism in the potentially impacted area
tribal cultural resources
human social and physical health

To review the February 2026 decision for the Ponderosa Project Categorical Exclusion provide by the US Forest Service click Here.

Below is a updated Plan of Operations:

Ponderosa_PlanofOperations_121424 Download

Below is Solitario Resources’ Amendment Letter to their Ponderosa Plan of Operations:

Ponderosa_PlanofOperations_AmendmentLetter_042325 Download

Golden Crest Project Plan of Operation

Ponderosa Project Plan of Operation

Ponderosa Project Milestones

NORTHERN HILLS GOLD DRILLING PROJECT BACK ON THE TABLE

The Ponderosa gold exploration drilling project, which is proposed for the area just south of Cheyenne Crossing in the northern Black Hills, is not “On Hold” anymore. Instead, the project application process is active, according to the Black Hills National Forest. Public notice and the beginning of a 30-day public comment period are expected later in June 2025.

This project is proposed by Solitario Resources and is upstream from Spearfish Canyon and Spearfish Creek. It is south of the adjacent project by Solitario, the Golden Crest project, which is now being drilled. Like Golden Crest, the Forest Service is recommending the Ponderosa project for a categorical exclusion — meaning the drilling would just be allowed to go ahead without further environmental review.

However, this project is almost twice the size of the Golden Crest project — 43 drill pads and potentially 430 drill holes as much as 3281 feet deep. Typically, drilling may be done vertically or at an angle. The company wants to drill 24 hours a day.

A sun dance ground on land owned by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is only 1.1 miles from the project boundary. A number of roads — some of them popular for recreation — would be widened or re-opened, and traffic would include pickup trucks, drilling equipment, water trucks, and a backhoe/skid steer. The company’s application says that water (usually 5,000 – 10,000 gallons per drill rig per day) would be from municipal or private water sources, but does not specifically say where the drilling water would come from.

The application (Plan of Operations) and other documents for this project can be found here.

Golden Crest Project Updates/Milestones

GOLDEN CREST EXPLORATION DRILLING #62590
Project Milestones provided by the USFS, Northern Hills Ranger District
- 8/2/22 – Scoping Start
- 5/10/23 – Comment Period Announced. News Release.
- 6/8/23 – Comment Period Ended. 1098 comments submitted. Go to Reading Room page 6.
- 12/12/23 – Legal Notice published – USDA Forest Service prepared an environmental assessment (EA) and draft decision notice and finding of no significant impact (DN/FONSI) for the Golden Crest Exploration Drilling Project.
- 1/26/24 – Objection Period End. Go to Reading Room page 1-6.
- 4/29/24 – Decision made to give the Green Light.
- 6/1/24 – Implementation (Estimate)