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>> All right, Senator
Johnson, thank you very

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much.
>> Have a good day.

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>> Right now in northern
Wisconsin, crews are

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working around the clock to
drill deep into the bedrock.

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It's called exploratory
drilling. And the goal is

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to determine if a deposit
of copper, gold and other

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minerals in the rock is
rich enough to bring

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metallic sulfide mining
back to the state. Here and

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now, senior political
reporter Zac Schultz has

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the story.
>> What we have going on

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here is the drilling
process has just started.

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>> It's a Sunday morning in
the Chequamegon-nicolet

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National Forest in Taylor
County. A drill team out of

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Minnesota is making the
final site preparations,

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digging a sump pit that
will hold cuttings from the

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drilling that is about to
begin. Steve Donahue is on

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the board of directors for
Greenlight Metals, the

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company behind the
exploratory drilling.

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>> And so the drill crew is
getting ready to start

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coring the bedrock. Okay.
And that's a hollow barrel

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with a diamond impregnated
tip on it. And it just cuts

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out a cylinder of the rock
going down.

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>> The drill team will cut
ten feet of bedrock. Use

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this tip, called a water
swivel, to pull up the core

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and repeat.
>> This particular hole

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will go down about 1500
feet.

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>> Greenlight Field
geologists will then box up

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the cores and bring them
back to their facility.

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>> They log the geology,
process the core, cut it up

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into segments, send it off
to a lab where the lab

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tests it for things like
copper and gold and

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tellurium.
>> Greenlight metals

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conducted exploratory
drilling at the site last

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summer.
>> What we're seeing is

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about 2 to 3% copper in the
ore, or what we would call.

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Or if you look at the
average deposit that's

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being mined in the world,
it's maybe half a percent.

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>> The site is known as the
bend deposit, and it was

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first identified and
explored in the 1980s.

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>> So each of these is a
drill hole.

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>> Eric Quigley is
Greenlight Metals director

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of exploration. A computer
model shows every

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exploratory hole drilled at
the site in the last 40

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years.
>> That red represents the

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copper, you know, primarily
the copper and gold

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mineralization that we've
identified.

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>> The current drilling is
trying to expand the

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picture to see if the
deposit runs deeper than

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previously known. The cores
from last summer were

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promising. They used a red
marker to circle flecks of

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gold in the bedrock.
>> The visible gold within,

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I think, is about roughly
two meters, probably

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averaging about a third a
third of an ounce per ton,

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which is extremely,
extremely high grade

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material.
>> They have conservative

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projections of what's in
the bend deposit.

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>> 4 million tons of ore,
copper grade ore that was

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about 1 to 2% copper with
good grades of gold. And

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now we're finding tellurium
in there. What we're hoping

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to do is to expand the
tonnage of that by drilling

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other areas around this
deposit.

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>> The results were enough
for Greenlight Metals to

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secure another $11 million
in funding from investors

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to continue the exploratory
drilling. But that doesn't

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mean a mine is coming to
Taylor County in the

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immediate future.
>> So we're years away from

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ever from being at the
point where we would

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actually start the
permitting process with the

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DNR and the federal
government on an actual

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mine out there.
>> Previous mining

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proposals in Wisconsin have
received hostile reactions.

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So Greenlight Metals is
being proactive in

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community outreach,
presenting updates to

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groups like the Westboro
Town Board.

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>> We want to be coming in
and talking to you and

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other local units of
government, because I think

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your input is going to be
important and we want to

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factor that in. The public,
I would say, is about 70%

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enthusiastic about the
potential. And then there's

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another group of people who
obviously have concerns

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about what it means for the
environment.

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>> I know you guys take
water from the yellow River

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to the drilling. What kind?
What is there in the permit

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that maintains a minimum
flow in the yellow River?

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>> The concerns are
primarily focused on

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environmental impact. The
bend deposit is under

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national forest land in
just a few hundred yards

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from the yellow River.
>> We just keep each other

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informed, informed about
the issues. Protecting the

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environment.
>> Scott Stalheim and Cathy

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Mauer are part of a group
called friends of the

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yellow River.
>> I think there should not

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be mining in this area for
a lot of those reasons.

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That's my personal opinion,
and I think many of the

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friends of the yellow River
would feel that way.

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>> The group is small and
private, mainly focused on

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educating members. An open
question is whether they

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should become more public
and vocal.

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>> We had quite a few
people with different

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opinions.
because it's just

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exploratory mining that,
well, it doesn't matter

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much. And until a real mine
comes, then we'll start to

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worry about it.
>> I think it's a

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fundamentally incompatible
land use to have on our

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national forest.
>> One group that is

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publicly opposing the
drilling is the Wisconsin

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chapter of the Sierra Club.
Dave Blouin is the state

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mining committee chair.
>> The environment here is

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especially water rich, and
that makes it really almost

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incompatible with modern
mining, especially metallic

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sulfide mining.
>> The issue is the copper

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and gold are found within
bedrock heavy with sulfides.

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As you can see in the cores
from the bend deposit.

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>> There's a very stark
contrast between the

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unmineralized rock and the
heavy sulfide content.

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>> After the ore is mined,
it has to be processed.

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Sulfides in the rock
produce acid when exposed

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to air and water.
>> Imagine a finely ground

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up, almost powdery waste
material that's that's left

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over from the processing to
skim off the metals in the

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first place. And you have
this acid producing

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material that is chock full
of nasty toxics that if

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they get into groundwater
or surface waters or

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wetlands, are absolutely
polluting and damaging to

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the environment. So this
includes lead, mercury,

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arsenic.
>> Most of the

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environmental damage from
metallic sulfide mining

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comes from leaks at the
tailings facilities

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polluting the groundwater.
>> That's an area that has

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gone through tremendous
changes in terms of how the

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tailings facilities are
managed.

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>> This video shows the
processing plant and

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tailings facility for the
Eagle Mine, a metallic

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sulfide copper mine in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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Donohue says they don't
have designs yet, but a

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processing facility in
Wisconsin would have an

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engineered liner and a
drainage system and would

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be capped at the end of its
lifespan.

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>> So it's very analogous
to what you would see for a

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municipal waste landfill.
>> He also says the ore

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wouldn't be processed in
the national forest. Bend

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is one of four deposits
across northern Wisconsin

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they would hope to mine,
and the processing and

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tailings facility would be
at one centralized location.

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>> And that allows us to
then capitalize, create

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economies of scale where we
can have a pipeline of

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projects that over a
generation or multiple

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generations are feeding
into that operation.

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>> Blouin says green light
is the fourth company to

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explore bend, and each
previous effort has shown

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it wasn't economically
viable.

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>> The overall deposit at
bend is under 2% copper,

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meaning 98% of the material
that comes out is waste.

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>> Donohue says a lot has
changed since the last

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exploration at bend. For
one, the demand for copper

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is up, raising the price
for copper.

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>> So there's a lot more
demand in the system

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because of things like AI,
electric vehicles building

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out the electric grid. It's
going to take a lot of

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copper.
>> They've also discovered

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a rare earth element called
tellurium, labeled by the

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U.S. as critical to the
creation of solar panels.

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>> In the drill program
that was completed this

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past summer. The assay data
indicated about 340 350g of

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tellurium per ton in the
material.

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>> The old argument for
mining in Wisconsin focused

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on the miner on the flag,
or the need for jobs. But

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the new argument is
national security.

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>> We're very reliant on
foreign sources for many,

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many critical metals. If we
don't want to be dependent

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on adversaries for these
critical metals, we're

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going to have to do it here
domestically.

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national security argument
simply because bend isn't

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big enough to factor in.
>> In terms of the amount

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of minerals that ore metals
that a bend deposit can

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produce, it's not going to
dent or make any real

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difference in terms of
national security for the

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United States.
>> Blouin understands any

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mining permit is years away,
but even the exploratory

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drilling comes with
concerns.

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>> It's concerning to us
because you know that

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potential, and they've
described it as a potential

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mining district across
northern Wisconsin is

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deeply concerning. Every
potential proposal results

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in risk to the environment,
to air, to water, to

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habitat in multiple
locations forever.

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>> Donohue reiterates
there's a lot more drilling

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00:09:49,122 --> 00:09:52,559
and a lot of studies to go,
but at some point in the

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future, the economics will
make the bend deposit

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00:09:55,529 --> 00:09:57,264
viable.
>> If you look at these

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types of belts across the
world, this is one of the

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00:10:01,268 --> 00:10:05,138
larger undeveloped belts of
its type in the world. So

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00:10:05,205 --> 00:10:08,208
from that perspective, I
think very confident that

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00:10:08,275 --> 00:10:12,079
there will be mining again
in Wisconsin.