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Tuesday, 30th October 2007 (1858 views)

A man from Minnesota has stated that his plans to operate a hobby gold mine in the Black Hills National Forest will be sensitive to the environment, it has been reported.

Phillip Tepley, from the Bemidji area of Minnesota, has requested that the South Dakota department of environment and natural resources makes a determination of special exceptional critical and unique lands in the national forest, according to the Black Hills Pioneer.

"I've always wanted to have a gold claim and I'm getting up in age and can't do it by hand. So we applied for a small mining permit," Mr Tepley told the publication.

Intended for operation over the summer, the project is to be worked using a small skid-steer loader and a backhoe with the option of using a five-yard dump truck.

While some topsoil is to be removed as part of the operation, the prospective miner said that it would be replaced and reseeded once the mining ceased.

"I think we should leave it in much better shape than what it was," he explained.

The Black Hills National Forest has some 1.2 million acres of land.

 

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