The Valentine Mining Company still wants to dig for gold just over the rim of Spearfish Canyon. Eight years after first seeking approval for its environmentally questionable and culturally offensive project, and two years after incurring an $11,000 fine for violating its exploration permit from the state, Valentine is asking Lawrence County to approve a conditional use permit for a smaller operation:
In 2012, the company requested a CUP from Lawrence County for a significantly larger proposal for the Deadwood Standard Project, which included onsite mineral processing.
Company officials ultimately decided that onsite mineral processing is not practical, and processing will not be conducted onsite.
“What’s a little different about this is, in 2012, we did approach the Deadwood Standard Project with a bigger permit boundary. It was a way bigger project. It was 80% larger than this project,” Bender said.
Overall, he said, 14 pits would be excavated over the life of the mine, affecting a total area of 31 acres [Jaci Conrad Pearson, “County Commissioners Get Onsite Tour of Deadwood Standard Project,” Black Hills Pioneer, 2020.07.07].
Valentine’s Mark Nelson told the Lawrence County Commission and other individuals on a recent tour of the site the pits would have an average depth of 23 feet. He said the Deadwood Standard Project would be relatively quiet:
Nelson said that because the noise factor was a significant concern during the last application process in 2012, VMC had a professional conduct a sound study, the results of which found that the primary noise in the Canyon today is traffic.
“We tested some loud equipment. We tested some back-up alarms. We also did three test spots to see if the blasting was audible in the canyon and the results of that testing showed that none of those sources of noise were audible in the canyon,” Nelson said.
The trucks would be 15-ton dump trucks, not the 150-ton trucks that Wharf runs.
Nelson estimated there would be 10-11 truckloads of ore per day coming out of the mine to the mill [Conrad Pearson, 2020.07.07].
Conrad Pearson reports the Lawrence County Commission will hear the conditional use permit application on September 3.
Even if you aren’t big on bling, the fact that you’re reading this indicates you could benefit from whatever gold Valentine may find: it’s estimated that Apple used 3.5 tons of gold to make 200,000,000 iPhones in 2019. Apple could recover that much gold by recycling 290,000,000 old iPhones.
Like 1870s Homestake’s pollution flowing all the way across west river to Lake Oahe, it’s pit and giant tailings led to apparent bankruptcy; and like continuing uranium mining messes from the 50s thru the present using new technology; so are the present gold mining technologies—heap leach pads leaving bankrupt acid lakes. And right now the microscopic gold specs in Madison limestone above Spearfish Canyon bankrupted mines in the 1800s, in the 1900s and now sought yet again using “new” heap leach technology.
America’s unsustainable business economy! Big Oil provided near nonstop economic growth of the post-war era. But did you or your parents buy big SUVs or trucks in the 90s like Rush Limbaugh urged you to?
YOU are the problem.
For Dutch SHELL Oil, fossil fuel extraction enlivened by new fracking technology, it still follows the same tired unsustainable path.
Edwin, Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines merely exploit fossil fuel that must instead be left in the ground to save the human race. $4 Trillion dollars worth! Leave it in the ground.
Shell has been moved by public outcry to change it’s business model. 60% of adults and a large share of Republicans support policy reducing fossil fuels, and of course the vast majority of Democrats. New green deals in Europe and US portend the future. NOT PIPELINES!
Shell’s natural gas reliance is contentious as a backup to clean energy like wind and solar. It left Arctic drilling and sold off tar sands reserves. EXXON still has total reserves of 27 years, BP 15, CHEVRON 11 and Shell only 8.5 years. Still, three of them left ALEC, and four now advocate for carbon tax.
Edwin, the Indians and Greta Thurnberg have been effective in pushing public policy. Not Trump’s USACOE! Investors can ditch stock, undermine share prices, tank company valuation and drag down executive pay.
Plastics and power supply are Shell’s new profit centers. Energy is the worst performer on the S&P 500—28% of the index in 1980, now just 5% (2019). Shell committed to reduce emissions 3% by 2021 and up to 50% by 2050, achievements tied to executive pay. However IPCC WARNS: cut greenhouse emissions 50% by 2030 and net-zero emissions
by 2050.
Of others in the top 5-6, all who knew of warming for 3-4 decades actively refuting climate science, EXXON and CHEVRON are still trying to squeeze the last bit of profit from oil. Fossil fuels globally are subsidized $5 Trillion annually including cost of environmental damage, Edwin, which you must want to keep paying for, leaving everyone else to clean it up.
Big Oil’s outsize political influence will continue, as will it’s roadblocks at legislation limiting profits.
CONOCO, OCCIDENTAL and Spanish REPSOL employ various CO2 storage and short cycles to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. TOO LATE!
TIME Magazine (1.27.20)
The Mountain of Minerals Corporation will keep digging the gold, and consuming the precious water from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mr. Pay and grudznick hope they are not like the Brohm fellows, and are not in league with them to turn the South Dakota Black Hills into some sort of Gomorrah of the West, like the Brohms want.
Mr. grudznick, that is correct about the pollution of Rapid City’s water source. Rapid Creek is one of the most endangered in the world and the folks who live in Rapid City are clueless as to what the gamble is on their drinking water.
Mr. jerry, there is some libbie greenie organization that has a “list”, which is as valid as the “scorecards” that old Mr. Nelson, the oaf, used to wave about and beller, and the creek named Rapid is on some “lists.”
Believe the list and believe Mr. Nelson’s scorecard that always rated him the best.
However yes, the creek named Rapid is at some small risk for pig and cow poop running into it and more risk from human contamination from people living along it spraying weeds and dumping yard pellets and such.
Those are the things we need to stomp down on the perpetrators, it is at very, very, almost minuscule risk of being hurt from mining. Stop being silly and stop looking at greenie blogs.
Yes, good to know that you read those greenie blogs as well. Here I thought that you might only think that water is wet, but no, you show that you’re….progressive! booyah! Do tell more, sir
Sounds like a much smarter and less destructive plan for Valentine Mining Company is to transform itself into Valentine Recycling Company and grab old smart phones.
There are really interesting economic questions there, Debbo: can you make more money by digging a bunch of gold from one spot in the mountains or by getting people to send you a bunch of gold from lots of different places… or by running around and collecting those pones yourself?
It seems there could be a short-term/long-term payoff question, too. If VMC gets the merit for the Deadwood Standard Project, they know all the gold they’re after is right there. Dig and process fast, and you’ve got a ton of gold after a year. Mining phones means getting a tiny sliver of gold with each submission; I would think it would take longer to gain the market recycling share to bring in any kind of steady stream of phones to produce any reliable stream of gold income.
But which model is more complicated and machinery-intensive? Both mining and recycling require some kind of processing plant, but mining also requires big earth moving machinery (and maybe dynamite! Whee!), while recycling requires trucks, or maybe just the USPS to ship phones from consumers.
Digging gold out of the ground with your own bare hands is more fun. You have to factor in which is more fun, too.