For a moment, it appeared a gold-mining claim had been issued in the Black Elk Wilderness.
But the area is federally protected from that kind of development
Bureau of Land Management officials say it was a clerical error.
The BLM has a database called Land Records 2000, which reports what mining claims are issued… both for the bureau and the public.
A press release from the Clean Water Alliance found a Minnesota-based company had mining claims in the Black Elks Wilderness Area… but it was a mistake
Chip Kimball is the field manager for South Dakota Bureau of Land Management. She says the claims to F3 Gold were issued correctly, but information entered into the database was done so incorrectly.
She says the BLM would not issue mining claims in the Black Elk Wilderness, because it’s illegal to do so.
“This was simply a typo, I mean, somebody just entered it wrong,” Kimball says. “It created a great deal of confusion and concern in the public. I certainly understand that. It was a random error. Of course, we’re human and errors like that can happen when you’re typing things into a database. I’m really grateful that they caught this error and we were able to correct it.”
When claim was entered into the database it was entered as township 2 south—which is the Black Elk area. The claim is for Township 2 north.
The Black Elk Wilderness Area is home to Black Elk Peak, and is one of the highest peaks east of the Rocky Mountains in North America.