The federal government approved a 20-year ban Thursday on new mining-related activity in a portion of South Dakota’s Black Hills.

The ban covers 32 square miles of federally owned land located about 20 miles west of Rapid City. The boundaries encompass the Pactola Reservoir and areas upstream that drain into the reservoir via Rapid Creek.

Lilias Jarding, executive director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, hailed the action as “an expression of the will of the people.”

“It definitely shows that when people get active in their communities that we can influence what happens,” Jarding said.

Advocates for the ban rallied against a proposal from Minneapolis-based F3 Gold to conduct exploratory drilling. The project’s location is in the Jenney Gulch area of the Black Hills National Forest, within a mile of Pactola Reservoir. The man-made mountain lake is the largest and deepest reservoir in the Black Hills. It’s also a popular recreation destination and a drinking-water source for Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base.

The boundaries of a ban on new mining-related activity encompassing the Pactola Reservoir and part of the Rapid Creek watershed. (Courtesy of U.S. Forest Service)

F3 won draft approval of its drilling plan from local Forest Service officials in 2022. Then, last year, the national offices of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management announced they were considering a ban on new mining-related activity in the Pactola area.

Federal officials conducted a meeting about the proposed ban last year in Rapid City, where public sentiment was overwhelmingly against the drilling project and in favor of the ban. The Black Hills Clean Water Alliance said more than 1,900 people filed written comments on the ban, with 98% in support of it.

The ban is formally known as a “mineral withdrawal,” because it withdraws the area from eligibility for new mineral exploration and development. A 20-year ban is the maximum allowed by federal law, although the ban could be renewed after that. Only Congress can enact a permanent ban.

Decision comes from Interior Department

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was the decision-maker on the mineral withdrawal, because the department’s Bureau of Land Management administers mining claims on federal land.

“I’m proud to take action today to withdraw this area for the next 20 years, to help protect clean drinking water and ensure this special place is protected for future generations,” Haaland said in a statement.

She also mentioned the area’s clean air, its recreational and ecological benefits, and the Black Hills’ sacred status in the traditional spiritual beliefs of many Great Plains Native American tribes. Haaland is a member of the Pueblo and Laguna tribes in New Mexico.

Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which includes the Forest Service, issued a statement praising Haaland’s decision.

“The Pactola Reservoir–Rapid Creek Watershed provides so many benefits to the people and communities we serve, from clean water to world-class recreation, from livestock grazing to the spaces our Tribal communities consider sacred,” Vilsack said.

F3 Gold did not immediately return a message from South Dakota Searchlight. Jarding said F3’s Pactola project is negated by the 20-year ban on new activities.

“The only exception to that is if someone has already proved there is a mineral reserve, and without drilling, there’s no proving there’s a mineral resource,” Jarding said.

The company has another exploratory drilling project near Custer, outside of the Pactola ban area. The Custer project has final approval from the Forest Service.

Interest in Black Hills gold dates to its 1874 discovery by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s Black Hills Expedition. The discovery set off a gold rush that ultimately led to the development of the Homestake Mine near Lead, which was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America prior to its closure in 2001. Today, the only active, large-scale gold mine in the region is the Wharf Mine, also near Lead. There’s a large abandoned gold mine in the Lead area, the Gilt Edge Mine, that is undergoing a massive cleanup and water-treatment project supported by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund.

Mining industry responds

Larry Mann, a retired South Dakota lobbyist who formerly represented F3, said the company’s project was treated unfairly. He said exploratory drilling would not damage the Pactola watershed, and that if drilling results justified developing a mine, the proposal would go through a rigorous permitting process that would probably take 10 to 15 years.

“F3 was willing to go through a lot of different things to accommodate concerns,” Mann said.

Mann wonders if the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump could seek to alter Haaland’s decision. Whether or not the new administration could do that, Mann expects Trump’s pick for secretary of the Interior Department — Republican former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — to be more supportive of mining on federal land.

“I think that there’s a possibility now with a change of leadership that the pendulum could start swinging the other way,” Mann said.

An official working for Burgum’s transition team did not immediately return a message from Searchlight. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management responded by email to Searchlight, saying only that “we’re not going to speculate about decisions of a next Administration.”

F3 Gold is not a member of the South Dakota Mineral Industries Association, but the association issued a statement Thursday in response to Searchlight questions about the Pactola ban. The statement describes the ban as “federal overreach.” The association also alleged that the decision conflicts with federal mineral laws and policies and fails to recognize the significance of critical minerals — such as antimony, used in batteries — that the association said are present in the area covered by the ban.

“The secretary’s rushed decision on the withdrawal of over 20,000 acres proves this administration is desperate to complete executive actions before the new administration takes over on January 20th,” the association’s statement said, in part.