The Open Cut was once a solid mountain where Fred and Moses Manuel and Hank Harney located the original Homestake claim on April 9, 1876. Before 1945, as many as 14 different mining companies removed 48 million tons of ore and waste from the Open Cut area. In 1981, Homestake Mining Company began a test drilling program to determine how much ore remained there. A test pit was mined in 1983 and 1984 near the former townsite of Terraville at the north end of the cut, and the success of that test led to full-scale open pit operations beginning in 1985. Mining of the historic Open Cut is expected to continue to the year 2000, by which time it will be about 1800 feet wide, 4500 feet long, and 960 feet deep.