Ragged Top Gold Project
The Ragged Top Gold Project consists of 52 unpatented lode-mining claims plus a combination of surface and mineral title to an additional 25 patented mining claims covering approximately 307 acres that were secured on March 9, 2021 through an option agreement with Donald Valentine of Steamboat Springs Colorado. On August 21, 2021, Dakota purchased surface and mineral title to approximately 230 acres of patented land from Atlas Development Company. In total, the property covers approximately 1,380 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA that lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range2E covering portions of Sections 19, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 32, and 33, and Township 4 N, Range2E covering a portion of Section 5.
Dakota staked the unpatented claims of the property between September, 2020 and March,2021.
Dakota maintains 100% ownership of the property. There are no known encumbrances of any kind and there are no other known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the unpatented claims with all surface rights on that portion of the property under the control of the US Forest Service. Annual claim maintenance fees are $165 per claim, or a total of $8,580 for the 52 unpatented claims. Annual claim maintenance fees are due before September 1st of each year.
Notice must be filed with and approved by the BLM, the USFS, and the SDDANR prior to undertaking any exploration activities. The notice describes the proposed exploration activities and any remedial reclamation deemed necessary. The various government agencies review the application to ensure there will be no deleterious impacts as a result of activity on the claims prior to granting any approvals for the proposed work. Access to the property is gained by traveling 1 mile southwest of Lead SD on Highway 85/ 14A to State Highway 473 and then traveling west approximately 3.2 miles to Wharf Mine Road and continuing generally northwest approximately 4.2 miles to the site of historic Preston gold camp.
Tertiary-aged gold mineralization in the Ragged Top area is hosted primarily in the Paha Sapa Limestone formation and has been mined from both vertical fissures called “Verticals” and from collapsed breccias.
Dakota’s Ragged Top Property is located just northwest of the producing Wharf Mine (Coeur Mining) and approximately 3 miles southwest of the former Richmond Hill Mine (Barrick Gold). The Atlas Development portion of the property was the site of historic small scale gold operations and was explored with shallow drilling by Homestake Mining Company in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Historic resources on the property were included in State Mine Permit 416, which is still active. Dakota believes that the Ragged
Top Property is an excellent prospect for additional tertiary-aged limestone hosted gold mineralization and for tertiary-aged gold and silver replacement mineralization in the preferred Deadwood formation host that lies under the cover of the limestone that dominates the surface exposure.
