SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Around 150 years ago, a gold rush brought settlers to the Black Hills of South Dakota, as they pursued dreams of wealth, displacing Native Americans in the process.
Today, enticed by gold prices exceeding $3,000 an ounce, a new wave of miners is eager to revisit this valuable terrain, offering economic benefits but also sparking concerns about modern gold extraction’s potential to alter the region permanently.
“These impacts can be long term and make it so that tourism and outdoor recreation is negatively impacted,” said Lilias Jarding, executive director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. “Our enjoyment of the Black Hills as a peaceful place, a sacred place, is disturbed.”
The Black Hills cover more than 1.2 million acres (485,622 hectares) and rise from the Great Plains of southwestern South Dakota, stretching into Wyoming. While their peaks are not as towering as the Rockies, these pine-clad hills hold sacred significance for the Lakota Sioux and attract millions of tourists visiting Mount Rushmore and state parks.
Dramatic landscape changes come with modern mining
Currently, one gold mine operates in the Black Hills, with companies proposing additional mines and exploratory drilling. This has led to opposition from Native American tribes and environmentalists who assert that such projects are near sacred sites, risk water contamination, and could leave lasting damage on the landscape.
Gold extraction has evolved significantly from the days of simple gold panning in the Black Hills. Today, it’s a large-scale industry employing immense trucks and diggers to create deep, layered pits and using chemicals like cyanide to extract gold.
The land can never return to its original state. The Homestake mine, once the largest and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere, now sits barren in Lead, South Dakota, and is used for scientific research.
Interest in Black Hills gold mining has soared along with the price of the metal. When the Homestake mine closed in 2002, gold sold for about $300 an ounce. Now it goes for about 10 times as much.
Joseph Cavatoni, senior market strategist at the World Gold Council, attributes the price spike to global economic uncertainty.
“Gold tends to be a stable asset,” he said. “That actually performs well in inflationary times, and holds its value in recessionary times. That’s why gold as an asset in investment.”
President Donald Trump also boosted the industry by issuing an executive order in March to increase American mineral production, calling for expedited permitting and reviews.
Colin Paterson, professor emeritus of geological engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, notes that Black Hills gold is encased in rock. To extract it, the rock is crushed and then a chemical like cyanide is used to dissolve the mineral and remove it.
Mining brings revenue, but renews Black Hills fight
Coeur Mining runs the single active mine in the Black Hills, but the company Dakota Gold has plans for an open pit mine to begin operating in 2029. The company is also targeting the area near the old Homestake site to build an underground mine where workers would descend hundreds or even thousands of feet into shafts.
Jack Henris, president and chief operating officer of Dakota Gold, estimated the open pit mine would create up to 250 jobs and result in the company paying the state up to $400 million in taxes over the life of the mine. Dakota Gold will conduct an environmental study and surveys of soil and vegetation to ensure safe operation, Henris said.
“Most of the people that work here are from this area and just love to live here,” he said. “So we’re a big part of the Hills and we love them just as much as other folks.”
To a great extent, gold mining helped create the modern Black Hills region.
The U.S. government signed a treaty in 1868 that recognized the Sioux Nation’s right to the Black Hills, but the government seized the land after the discovery of gold and allowed settlers into the region. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled the Sioux were entitled to compensation, but they have not accepted any and maintain their claim to the land.
Tribes have largely opposed mining in the Black Hills.
“There’s a central truth about mining in the Black Hills in that it was never the most mineral rich place there ever was,” said Taylor Gunhammer, local organizer with the Indigenous advocacy group NDN Collective and an Oglala Sioux, one of the Lakota people. “It’s not even the actual mineral content of the Black Hills that is so attractive to mining companies. It’s the permissive nature of the officials who oversee mining.”
Some proposed projects, such as Dakota Gold’s mine, are on private land and only subject to state rules, not the U.S. Forest Service regulations required for projects on public acreage.
Environmentalists have focused their opposition on the possibility of chemicals leaks. They note that Coeur’s Wharf mine has had nearly 200 spills and that the former Homestake mine was closed because it contaminated a nearby creek.
Coeur’s environmental manager, Jasmine McCauley, said in a statement that each spill was “thoroughly investigated, mitigated, and corrective actions are put in place to prevent reoccurrence.” The company is always improving its processes, she added.
Jarding, of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, said she remains concerned about the number of projects in the works.
“It’s really important that people understand the exponential growth in mining activity that’s been happening in the Black Hills over the last five years or so,” Jarding said. “There are currently active mining claims on 271,000 acres in the Black Hills. That’s 20% of the whole Black Hills that is potentially going to be subject to mining.”
