Richmond Hill Gold Project
On October 14, 2021, Dakota Gold entered into an option agreement to acquire 100% of Barrick's interest in the Richmond Hill Property in the Homestake District, South Dakota. Under the terms of the agreement, Dakota Gold has a three-year option to acquire 2,126 acres of surface and mineral rights with attendant facilities. Dakota Gold issued 400,000 shares to Barrick and will make annual Option payments of $100,000 during the option period. Under the original terms of the Agreement, Dakota Gold had the right to exercise the Option on or before September 7, 2024, by assuming all liabilities and bonds associated with the Richmond Hill Property. In addition, on exercise of the option, Dakota Gold will issue Barrick an additional 400,000 shares and grant a 1% net smelter royalty ("NSR") to Barrick with respect to any minerals that may be recovered from the Richmond Hill Property. In September 2023, Dakota Gold amended their Richmond Hill Option agreement with Barrick which extended the option period to March 7, 2026 and increased the Richmond Hill Property size by an additional 489 mineral acres bringing the total mineral acreage for the project to approximately 2,615 mineral acres.
The project area is located in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the property lies within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range2E covering portions of Sections 9, 10, 11, 13. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 34. The property is contiguous to Dakota Gold's West Corridor and Blind Gold Properties and is located approximately 1/2 mile north of the producing Wharf Gold Mine (Coeur Mining). 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 west approximately 1.2 miles before turning and traveling 1 mile north on the Richmond Hill Road.
The Richmond Hill area is an important component of Dakota Gold's exploration strategy for the Homestake District. The property includes the past producing Richmond Hill mine and the mines of the Carbonate District. The Richmond Hill mine produced ore from Tertiary breccias dominantly hosted within Precambrian units that were processed as an open pit, heap leach operation. Tertiary-aged replacement gold mineralization, as well as possible Precambrian iron formation hosted mineralization were identified during exploration programs in the 1980s and 1990s.
Gold mineralization in breccia pipe bodies had previously been identified in the Richmond Hill, Richmond Hill North, Twin Tunnels, and Turnaround Breccia Pipes by LAC Minerals (USA) LLC. Dakota Gold followed up on this earlier work, and, by the end of 2023, completed 71 drill holes for a total of 123,573 feet (37,665 meters) which tested portions of the Twin Tunnels, Turnaround and Richmond Hill Breccia Pipes. Only three of the six known breccia pipes exposed at the Richmond Hill Gold Project have been subject to any drilling by the Company and all of the known breccia pipes on the Richmond Hill Gold Project remain open and/or lack drill testing to depth. These breccia pipes are associated with the Tertiary alkalic magmatism that generated most of the Tertiary-aged gold deposits in the Homestake District.
An aggressive drilling program was conducted on Richmond Hill in 2023, designed to accomplish two goals: (1) Validate the historic resources identified initially by LAC Minerals LLC in the 1980-90's, including metallurgical sampling, material characterization and generating a new geologic model; and (2) Expand and define additional resources through infill, step-out and depth extension drilling around and within the known resources area.
Future work planned for Richmond Hill includes the following (in order of priority): (1) completion of an S-K 1300 compliant maiden resource estimation in 2024; (2) expansion and step-out drilling around the future resource area; (3) exploration drilling around the other known, less tested, mineralized target areas; and (4) exploration drilling of geophysical targets under Paleozoic cover along the north and south extension of the Richmond Hill structural corridor.
