Golden promises
Green Light execs seek to reassure county officials
Two executives from Green Light Metals Wisconsin, LLC on Tuesday sought to reassure county officials that a proposed gold and copper mine in the town of Easton could be developed without environmental damage, including toxic run-off to the nearby Eau Claire River.
Dan Colton, company president, and Steve Donohue, a company board member, told members of the county’s Environmental Resources Committee and Metallic Mining Committee that the Ladysmith copper mine, located within 140 feet of the Flambeau River, and the Eagle mine, located in western Marquette County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, have operated without environmental pollution.
The company spokesmen said a federal court decision upholding the environmental success of the Flambeau mine stood as “proof” that safe sulfide mining was not just possible, but had been done through good engineering and strict Wisconsin regulations.
The executive’s assurances followed statements by nine people during public participation who fretted that lax Wisconsin regulations would open the door to guaranteed groundwater and surface water pollution adjacent to any sulfide mine.
“Sulfide mining always toxifies the environment downstream, no ifs, ands or buts,” said Don Barth, town of Knowlton. Former supervisor Al Christianson, town of Ringle, said he had helped with prior efforts to find gold at the REEF deposit and was skeptical that the company would be able to start-up a profitable mine.
Colton told supervisors that mining companies Noranda and Aquilla Resources had both extensively explored for gold in the REEF deposit in the town of Easton during past decades, but had not taken the time to identify the “structure” of metal deposits in the area. He said a second look might identify additional minerals that would make the site economically feasible to mine.
Currently, Colton said, there was no economic justification to pursue a REEF deposit mine with current understanding. “We may never see a mine,” he said. “It’s not economic to put a mine out there.”
Still, the executive said, there are high yield gold deposits in the REEF deposit that could generate nine grams of gold per ton of ore. He called those “very rich.”
Colton said the company is hopeful it can find more of these high yield deposits.
“We want to find more gold,” he said.
Colton said the company has filed a permit application with the Marathon County Conservation, Planning and Zoning Department (CPZ) to drill exploratory core samples at the mining site. The company proposes to start drilling this fall and possibly ending the exploration by winter 2023.
An exploratory drilling hole must under Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regulations be less than 18 inches wide.
Colton said favorable exploration would mean the company might return to the state and county to apply for a mining permit six or seven years from now.
The executive said developing American sources of gold, copper, nickel, lithium and zinc was essential to a transition to an electric-powered economy featuring electric cars and windmills. He noted that President Joe Biden called for such mining in a March memorandum both for environmental and national security reasons.
He said a new electric economy will require a vast amount of newly mined copper.
“We will need to mine more copper than we have minedin the history of mankind,” he said.
Colton said his company would tap Ladysmith administrator Al Christianson to talk to Marathon County citizens about his positive experience living adjacent to the Flambeau mine. He said, as well, that Green Light Metals would convene a citizen advisory commission to facilitate a “respectful conversation” with local residents.
Citizens during the public participation portion of the meeting expressed concern that drilling fluids used by Green Light Metals could contain PFAS, socalled “forever chemicals” that are harmful to health if ingested in water in merely parts per trillion.
DNR spokeswoman Roberta Wallas said Green Light Metals will only be able to use approved drilling fluids and that, so far, they don’t know of any fluids on their approved list that contain PFAS.
Under state law and county ordinance, the CPZ is able to grant Green Light Metals a permit to exploratory mine without any approval from the ERC or county board. The department must issue a permit 20 days after a completed application has been submitted.
The fee for such a permit is $500.
Golden Dozen awardRecord Review editor Peter Weinschenk on June 23 accepts a Golden Dozen award from International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors outgoing president Mike Buffington at the conclusion of a conference held at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. The winning editorial was entitled “Stand Up For Local Control” and concerned proposed state laws to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Wisconsin public schools.
