Blind Gold Project
Dakota Gold owns a 100% interest in the 191 mining claims (3,393 acres) and 39.4 acres of private surface land that comprise the Blind Gold project. In total, the Blind Gold claims cover approximately 3,433 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Ranges 2 and 3 E covering portions of Sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Range 2E and Sections 5, 6, 7, 8 and 18 in Range 3E.
Dakota Gold acquired 84 of the claims through the acquisition of North Homestake Mining Company in September 2012. In December 2012, Dakota Gold's Blind Gold property position was increased through the acquisition of 23 additional claims from Black Hills Gold Exploration LLC. Dakota Gold added 63 contiguous claims on its west and southwestern property boundary in February 2020 and in December 2020, 21 additional claims were at the western boundary of the property. In August 2022, Dakota Gold purchased a 39.4-acre land parcel along the west side of the Blind Gold claim block in order to facilitate drilling portions of the projected Homestake iron-formation target from private surface land. There are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the main block with all surface rights under the control of Dakota Gold and the USFS. The annual claim maintenance fees total $31,515.
Access to the project is gained by traveling 4.3 miles south-southeast from the City of Spearfish along the Maitland Road (Forest Service 195). Alternately, the area can be accessed from the south via the same Maitland Road from Central City. The northern segment of the property can be accessed from the Maitland Road via Forest Service Road 195-2A and the southern portion can be accessed via the Paradise Gulch Road. In addition, various forest service roads exist within the claim area.
The Blind Gold claims are located approximately 4 miles northwest and on structural trend with the Homestake Gold Mine. In the 1980s and 1990s, Homestake Mining Company's work in the Homestake District extended the Homestake iron-formation host under cover and demonstrated the repeatability of Homestake iron-formation-hosted gold deposits within the structural corridor extending northwest of the mine.
In addition to the exploration potential for gold hosted in the Homestake iron-formation, the Blind Gold project holds exploration potential for Tertiary-aged gold and silver replacement deposits typical of the Homestake District, with the mineralization hosted in the Cambrian Deadwood formation and to a lesser degree the Paha Sapa Limestone. The formation of Tertiary-age gold-silver replacement deposits is generally dependent on fault and fracture structures necessary to the transportation of mineralizing fluids and proximity to the preferential intrusive bodies, both of which are present at the Blind Gold claims. Tertiary-age gold mineralization is evidenced across the Blind Gold claims by numerous mapped prospect workings dating from the turn of the century in the Paha Sapa Limestone, Phonolite intrusive and Deadwood formation where it outcrops at the southwest corner of the property.
The Company's initial planned drill program at Blind Gold is to target Homestake iron-formations projected from the Maitland area into the Blind Gold property, gold-silver replacement deposits in the preferred Deadwood formation host under the cover of the Paha Sapa limestone emanating from the historic Maitland Gold Mine located south of the Blind Gold project boundary and structurally controlled, Precambrian hosted Tertiary mineralization and breccia bodies projected north from Unionville discovery located immediately to the south. Mineralized north-south vertical structures and breccia bodies extend from the Maitland Mine area into the Blind Gold property and can be traced for more than one mile thru historic trenching and prospects. This drilling will initially be done from drill platforms located on private surface lands located on the Maitland Property and other strategic land holdings west of the Blind Gold property.
