Homestake Open Cut Mine

Homestake Open Cut Mine. . This is Homestake's Open Cut Mine, one of the best known landmarks in the Black Hills. It is the site of the original discovery in 1876 of the Homestake claim, named for "making a man rich enough to make his home stake (enough money to return home and live comfortably)." Homestake mined this area periodically from 1876 to 1998., Two noteworthy expansions of the Open Cut occurred in the 1980's -- the first in the north end and the second and much larger expansion toward the south. Both projects employed conventional open pit mining methods involving drilling, blasting, and hauling. Haul trucks capable of holding 85 tons of material were used to move the ore to a mill for processing. Left behind was waste rock -- rock with no economic value -- that had to be moved to access the gold ore. The Open Cut is 1200 feet deep and one-half mile wide. In open pit mines such as the Open Cut, waste rock is stacked in waste rock facilities and then reclaimed (restored to beneficial use)., Of the three peaks seen here, the Bobtail and Highland are waste rock facilities, while Rhyolite Peak -- with its bands of light and dark rock -- is Mother Nature's work, and may be up to two billion years old. Two additional waste rock facilities are located near the Open Cut but unseen from this view -- the East and Sawpit.