linking in static c library

[akcom]

I've got some cipher/hashing routines (AES, RSA, and SHA256, not that it matters) that are written C.  I'd like to compile them into a static library so that I can basically wrap it in D bindings and use it in my application.  Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that I must compile my C static library with the digitalmars C compiler.  Unfortunately having come from Visual C++ 6.0, I'm not very well adept at console compiling/linking.  I feel quite stupid asking this, but could someone explain to me how I can build a static library in C that can be used in a D project?