South Dakota’s Black Hills have helped win wars before: during the 1940s, lithium, tin and tantalum extracted from the region were sent into the U.S. wartime supply chain. 80 years later, the United States is again facing a national security critical minerals crunch – and attention has returned to the Black Hills as a potential source of secure mineral supply – this time for high-grade gold, lithium and tin.
Lion Rock Resources (TSXV:ROAR | OTCQB: LRRIF) is drilling the Volney project in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where high-grade lithium pegmatites sit alongside a high-grade gold and tin system just 10 kilometers from Homestake’s 43.9 million ounces of past production.
The drilling is happening as Washington is pouring money into mining and processing companies to reshore critical mineral supplies essential for advanced tech, defence systems and energy security. The question is simple: where will the new domestic supply come from?
Lion Rock Resources believes the answer may lie beneath their historic mining camp.
The Volney project in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a privately held property that has never seen modern geological exploration techniques applied. For decades it sat overlooked, passed down through a South Dakota ranching family that had historically allowed a few small, artisanal mining operations, but also had no reason to consider what deeper drilling might reveal.
Now it has the full attention of an award-winning, discovery-driven team led by Executive Chairman, Nav Dhaliwal, and CEO, Dale Ginn, a geologist behind several multi-million-ounce gold finds.
Drills are now turning for the first time in the project’s modern history.
Multi-commodity projects are not unusual, but finding one in the US that combines high-grade lithium and high-grade gold (and maybe tin and tantalum) is an instant attention grabber. So, we sat down to discuss Volney with Lion Rock’s Nav Dhaliwal.
Lithium Upside
Nav Dhaliwal was initially drawn to the property for its hard-rock lithium grades. The Volney pegmatite select surface samples ranging from approximately 2.5% up to nearly 4% lithium carbonate equivalent, significantly exceeding the 0.8% to 1.4% typically considered high-grade in hard-rock deposits. Dhaliwal posits that the system is more comparable, in terms of grade, to high-grade lithium deposits found in Western Australia. Crucially, the lithium system remains largely underexplored, as previous artisinal mining and drilling efforts generally did not test depths beyond 50 meters.
“When we first looked at Volney, what attracted Dale and I was the high-grade nature of the lithium. We’ve seen other companies elsewhere in the US and also in Canada doing great jobs but, you know, the hard-rock lithium grades that they’re finding are 0.8-1.4%. When Dale and I saw the samples that our team was taking off Volney, the numbers were ranging from a minimum of 2.5%, all the way up to close to 3.84%. When we saw those numbers we knew this was something to focus our attention on right away.” Nav Dhaliwal, Executive Chairman, Lion Rock Resources
Gold Discovery Potential Near Homestake
In a region defined by precious metals production, Lion Rock’s work has also, unsurprisingly, uncovered significant high-grade gold potential. The Volney project is situated approximately 22 kilometers from the former 40-million-ounce Homestake Mine and 14 kilometers from the operating Wharf Mine.
Nav Dhaliwal notes that during the surface sampling and mapping phase, his team found gold nuggets in similar gulches that led to the discovery of the Homestake source.
The company’s geological team, led by Ginn who has six discoveries under his belt, has outlined a strong shear-hosted gold system, defined by a geological shear zone measuring approximately 73 meters wide and 1.6 kilometers long. Historic records support this potential, showing high-grade intercepts such as 18 meters over 18 g/t Au, despite the fact that previous miners were focused on the potential for lithium, not gold. If the ongoing drilling campaign confirms a deposit, it would represent a “true gold discovery,” as the property was historically known only for tin, lithium, and tantalum.
“What we believe we have sitting here is a very high-grade lithium system with some tin and tantalum, but also possibly a significant high-grade gold mineralized system as well. The more information we gathered during our early stage exploration, the more interesting it became – to a point where we sat back and said, you know we really need to drill this because all this information that’s layering up, it really could be something special and beyond our first expectations” – Nav Dhaliwal, Executive Chairman, Lion Rock Resources
De-risking the Asset: Jurisdiction and Infrastructure
Volney has also some inherent advantages that mitigate key operational and geopolitical risks common in the mining sector. South Dakota is a very mining friendly jurisdiction, and the Volney property, spanning 142 hectares, is entirely on 100% private ground, bypassing the federal permitting complexities and delays often associated when dealing with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land.
Another significant financial and logistical advantage is the existing infrastructure. Being located in a historic mining district means that essential infrastructure, including roads, power, and water, is already established.
“I can’t talk highly enough about how mining friendly South Dakota is, it’s a very proactive state and they’ve been nothing but supportive of our project. And the roads are there, the power is there, so we’re as a management team looking at a project that would require the financing and build out that for many comparable greenfield mining projects can be north of $500 million to a billion dollars if they want to advance all the way.
But, having said that, we want to empower Americans by putting Americans back to work as well. We want to be part of the social fabric, the economical fabric of the local communities and state of South Dakota, so we fully expect to approach any sort of future development in a collaborative way” – Nav Dhaliwal, Executive Chairman, Lion Rock Resources
Catalysts for Early 2026
Lion Rock recently secured a US$5.3 million financing round comprised exclusively of high-net-worth investors, without involvement from institutions or brokers. This capital supports the company’s inaugural 5,000-meter drill campaign, which is currently underway. Nav Dhaliwal reports being ‘very encouraged’ by preliminary observations from the first 12 holes, as disclosed in the company’s December 2 update and anticipates completing the current program before Christmas. Those early observations were shared with the market in a news release issued December 2.
“We anticipate on having our first drill program of about 5,000 meters done before Christmas. We’re very encouraged by what we’re seeing to date so far out of the first 12 holes – and, not just the results, but the efficiencies of our team that we put in place.
“We’re very excited for a very prospective 2026 for what we we believe is a very strong project” – Nav Dhaliwal, Executive Chairman, Lion Rock Resources
Assay results are expected to begin flowing in mid-January. Should those results be in line with the team’s initial observations, the company plans to escalate operations, moving from one drill rig to two in the first quarter of the subsequent year. Nav Dhaliwal states the confluence of high-grade mineralization, supportive jurisdiction, and near-term drilling catalysts positions the company for a “very prospective 2026”.