Homestake Mine- Largest United States Gold Producer

The Homestake Mine is situated in the northern portion of the Black Hills of South Dakota in a series of steeply dipping and highly folded Precambrian Rocks. The ore bodies are localized along plunging anticlinal and synclinal folds which are locally called "ledges." The gold bearing ore is confined mainly in the Homestake formation which is an iron-magnesium carbonate series of rocks. The individual ore bodies are pipe or lense-shaped zones which plunge 30º to 75º from the horizontal. These ore bodies range from 10 to 100 feet wide and 50 to 400 feet along the strike. Gold values are erratically distributed in a gangue consisting of cummingtonite schist, sideroplesite schist, quartz, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, chlorite schist and ankerite. Usually the ore bodies dip at 70° to 80º and often have folded shapes like "fish hooks" or "troughs." Ore grades must be determined by extensive sampling and all mining is based on assay control.