More holes being poked into Paha Sapa

South Dakota is no stranger to ecocide because it's a way of life in the chemical toilet. Under the General Mining Law of 1872 even foreign miners have carte blanche to rape the Black Hills, so they are. Land seized from the Great Sioux Nation had been remanded to the tribes under the Treaty of Fort Laramie but Congress broke the agreement to pay down Civil War debt then exploited the Custer Expedition's discovery of gold in the Black Hills.

Today, thanks to the Trump Organization the United States is in debt to the tune of $27 TRILLION so the US is encouraging mining companies from outside the country to drill more holes in the Earth looking for gold and silver. The surging price of gold means Republicans and foreign miners see the sacred Black Hills as a sacrifice zone. 

Mineral Mountain Resources has been trucking water in 3000 gallon tanks from Lead for lubrication with plans to take at least ten gallons a minute from wells near their test holes on 7,835 acres near Rochford. Solitario Zinc Corp. has been drilling in Latin America but now is combing 580 mining claims on about 11,600 acres in Lawrence County. Wharf Resources is doing exploratory drilling above Spearditch Canyon in a new area close to its current strip mine and cyanide leach pads in the Northern Hills where it recorded $72.5 million in profits for 2020.

Often powerless to resist the extractive industry the Black Hills National Forest is taking comments on a proposal from F3 Gold to drill on 2,500 sites near Silver City and explore above the Rapid Creek inlet to Pactola Reservoir on claims that actually extend into the lake.

The State of South Dakota has been trying to trade land with the Forest Service so Republicans can further despoil the former Gilt Edge Mine.

In 2020 American Rivers released a report that named Rapid Creek the seventh most endangered waterway in America, identified mining as a major threat then called on the US Forest Service to go beyond regulation outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and "do more thorough environmental impact statements on proposed projects and potential impacts, including formal consultation with 16 tribal nations."

While exploratory holes normally take millions of gallons of water they tend to have minimal impact on the Forest itself but the drillers usually sell their data to bigger miners like Barrick, a Canadian earth raper.

ip photo: a beaver dam stills water on Rapid Creek near the Black Fox Campground above Rochford.