UPDATED 1/4/24
KNOWN LITHIUM PROJECTS/OPERATORS IN BLACK HILLS – JANUARY 2024
1. United Lithium, a Canadian company, has mining claims south of Custer that have been registered with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They also have newer mining claims going south along both sides of Highway 385 to south of Pringle.
2. IRIS Metals, an Australian company, has at least two projects. One, the Custer Project, is east of Custer near Custer State Park. The other, the Dewy project, is between Custer and Hill City along both sides of Highway 385. The Dewy lithium project is not to be confused with the proposed Dewey-Burdock uranium project that’s partly in Custer County.
3. IRIS Metals also has an agreement with Cody Schad from Rapid City. This makes it hard to tell if any projects that are in Schad’s name are actually IRIS projects.
4. Longview Minerals, which is also part of IRIS Metals, has an exploration project and a mining license a few miles south of Custer. The license is in Schad’s name.
5. Cody Schad also has a other projects in his name south of Custer along Flynn Creek Road. Schad had a mine operating illegally in 2021-2022, and he was issued a violation by the SD Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources in March 2022. He now has four state mining licenses in the same general area south of Custer – Longview, Beecher Lode, Black Diamond, and Dyke Lode. He has had one project that was an active mine near Tinton in Lawrence County, but that is now in reclamation.
6. Schad is also one of the two owners of Lithium North America LLC, which was organized in Rapid City.
7. Midwest Lithium, organized in Switzerland, has announced two Black Hills projects. It wants to drill 55 exploration holes through its subsidiary SDO Services. They also have a mining license for this project, which is at the old Ingersoll mine site by Old Hill City Road and about 2 miles north of Mount Rushmore. They also have an exploration permit immediately south of Hill City’s municipal boundary and east of the Mickelson Trail. Drilling is slated to begin at the latter site in Spring 2024.
8. Black Hills Lithium Corp. has a project at the old Mateen Mine south of Hill City. This is right by where SDO applied to drill.
9. Patriot Lithium, an Australian company, is active in the Black Hills. A Patriot associate, New Energy Metals, has claims near Mount Rushmore.
Gathered from public sources by Lilias Jarding, PhD – January 2024
UPDATED 8/22/23
NOW IT’S ABOUT LITHIUM! The Black Hills now has several known lithium mining efforts that are looking for lithium and/or have staked lithium mining claims. If you’ve heard of lithium, it’s probably because it’s used in batteries, including electric vehicle batteries, batteries for cell-phones and laptops, rechargeable batteries, toys, and more.
FOR A MORE IN-DEPTH ARTICLE GO TO: LITHIUM MINING IN THE BLACK HILLS.
In the U.S. there is a lithium rush right now due to the Biden Administration prioritizing mining for materials for renewable energy and electric vehicles. This Administration is pushing lithium mining as part of its “green energy” program. Mining lithium is not “green.” Like other mining, it is dangerous to water and wildlife, scars the land, and uses large amounts of water.
The operators and projects that we currently know of are:
- United Lithium has a large exploration project south of Custer, covering parts of Highway 385 and Highway 16. Their project is called the Liberty Project, and it stretches south past Pringle.
- IRIS Metals has two lithium exploration sites. One, called the Custer Project, is south of Custer between the town and the state park. The other, called the Dewy Project, covers an area on both sides of Highway 16 north of Hill City.
- IRIS Metals also has an agreement with RLL Consulting, a Rapid City company organized by Cody Schad.
- Schad also has four lithium mining licenses and at least one mine in his own name south of Custer along Flynn Creek Road. Schad had a mine that was operating illegally in 2021-2022, and he was issued a violation by the SD Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
- Longview Minerals, which is also part of IRIS Metals, has an exploration project south of Custer.
- Schad is also one of the owners of Lithium North America LLC, which was organized in Rapid City.
- SDO Services LLC, a subsidiary of Midwest Lithium has announced two Black Hills projects. One is just north of Mt. Rushmore National Monument along Old Hill City Road at the old Ingersoll mine, and the other is just south of the Hill City municipal boundary near the Mickelson Trail.
- 07-2023 – EXNI – Generally located two miles northwest of Keystone, SD
- 08-01-23 – EXNI 448 – Application – general location Mateen Claim near Hill City, SD
- 08-10-23 – EXNI 448 – Notice of Filing – approximately 1/4 mile south of Hill City, SD /Pennington County
- EXNI 448 – Maps (2) – Project Location and Water Well Completion Report
- Black Hills Lithium Corp. has a project at the old Mateen Mine south of Hill City.
- There are two additional lithium projects in the Black Hills: one at Tinton in western Lawrence County and one between Keystone and Hill City. The latter might be the same as the SDO Services project mentioned above, or these could be the project sites announced by Patriot Lithium, an Australian company.
Tune in often for updates on this rapidly changing situation.
These lithium projects are in addition to the Newark gold project, which is to the immediate west of Custer along Highway 16 and to the north. The Newark gold project is controlled by F3 Gold, a company that has approximately 54,000 acres of mining claims in the central and southern Black Hills.
Lithium was mined in the Keystone area until the 1950s. It takes several hundred pounds of lithium to make the battery in one electric vehicle. There are efforts to recycle lithium and to produce batteries using safer and less-damaging materials. But right now, lithium is what is used.
While we agree that renewable energy is key to fighting climate change, we do not think that the Black Hills are a good location for new large-scale mines. And mining is a major contributor to carbon emissions and climate change. The Black Hills are ecologically, culturally, and historically unique and are the treaty homelands of the Lakota people. The current local economy, which is based on agriculture, tourism, and outdoor recreation, is far more prosperous than a mining-based economy and creates far less damage to the area’s land, wildlife, and water.
Read more on Biden’s order to increase mining to power electric vehicles raises contamination concerns.
The mission of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, founded in 2009, is to stop current and prevent future radioactive and destructive mining in the Black Hills region to protect our valuable resources – especially our water – for future generations.
Black Hills Clean Water Alliance 