Alright, so I guess
give me a sense of what we're
looking at here and how it looks
today versus what it might have
looked like a couple months ago.
Sure, so this is the location
of our drill program from
that we completed between
July and the end of August this
past year, so 2025.
And what we're standing on right
here is the access
road that comes into the
first drill site.
You see those orange stakes sticking
up out of the ground?
That's where we completed the first
two drill holes.
And the site's been reclaimed.
It's been revegetated.
Behind those stakes is
where the sump was
excavated to contain the
drill cuttings.
And when we're done with that,
done with the entire drill program,
those drill cutting are mixed with
cement and then it's buried.
All of the activities that we
conducted in here were done
under the permits and
authorization from the Wisconsin
DNR and the U.S.
Forest Service.
And they regulated the
access road.
They regulated how we manage the
drill cuttings, the types
of materials that we used in
the drill program, and then
they regulate how we have to
reclaim the site.
So all of our work that we've done
in here is financially assured,
meaning it's bonded with the
Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources so
that we're held accountable
for the reclamation and the
abandonment of the holes.
The DNR will be back out here
over the course of the next year to
confirm that the vegetation has
taken root.
It's healthy, it's stable, and
they'll have to do that before we
get our financial assurance back.
So I know one of the, I mean, there
are people that are opposed to
mining, period.
But there are other people just have
concerns that all these exploratory
drillings that going deep in the
earth's surface, what are you
pumping in there?
The exposure, what does this prove
to them or what would you want them
to be able to see here?
Well, a couple of things.
First of all, the type of
drilling that we're doing is really
no different than
what's done for
domestic residences when
they're drilling a water well.
The only thing that's really
different is that we are going
deeper, and when we get into the
bedrock, we're coring that.
But the drill materials and the
types of technology that we use
are very similar to what's
done. In the water well industry
or other engineering applications
all across the state.
So it's a very safe process and
it's highly regulated.
The other thing that I think is
important for the public is
the amount of land that we disturb
here is actually quite small.
The road that we came in
on, we didn't take out any big
trees.
Any tree that we did take out
had to be authorized by the U.S.
Forest Service, so we're talking
small diameter.
Type trees.
In the area, disturbance is pretty
small. We're talking about a drill
area here that's maybe 50
by 75 feet
wide and a 10 foot
wide, 15 foot
wide access trail coming in here.
So it's pretty limited
disturbance for doing the drilling.
And so future
exploratory holes will be
off in that direction.
Well, future holes will be,
some will be off in that direction,
we'll probably have some on the
other side of the road as well.
So what we're looking to do is
place those holes in
areas to confirm either past
drilling data or
in areas where the deposit
hasn't been fully explored.
We're talking, how far down
are we standing over what
you're hoping is there?
So the bedrock here is
covered by about 100 to maybe 125,
150 feet of glacial
overburden. So that's a lot of sand
and gravel and silts and stuff like
that.
And the mineralization is
within that bedrock.
And that mineralization could go
down maybe 1,500 feet from
the bed rock surface.
We don't exactly know the
extent of all that.
Could be a little shallower.
Could be little deeper.
But that's the type of depths that
we're talking about.
I mean, it's interesting to think
that most people could walk out here
and just go for a walk in the woods
and never realize what's underneath.
That's right. It's kind of
interesting.
And the other thing, too, is people
could walk through this area and
but for the stakes that we have
sticking up out of the ground, they
probably wouldn't know that there
was drilling that was conducted
here.
Just on the other side of the road,
we can take you to a drill site
that was drilled probably
20 years ago or so.
And so it's been reclaimed and stuff
like that. And if you didn't know
that there was a drill hole that was
done there, you wouldn't know that
any. Anybody was there.
Is the concern that like these holes
like stuff could come get
in or stuff comes out
or what what is the environmental
concern that i mean you guys
obviously have to take care of but
what are the larger issues with that
Well, I think some of the concerns
that we've heard from the public are
the types of drilling materials that
we're using.
And what we've always told the
public is any kind of drilling
material that we use like
bentonite or anything like that to
mix the mud to flush the cuttings
up out of the hole.
All of those products that we used
are on an approved DNR
list of products that can be used
for any kind drilling in the state,
not just for exploration drilling,
it could be for construction
purposes.
If someone's doing a scientific
study, they would be
regulated to use the
same types of products.
The other thing that people tend to
be concerned about is what
happens to the hole once you're done
with it.
And again, what we are obligated
to do under the permits is
if we've got a 1,500-foot drill
hole, we have to abandon
that, and that means we have stick
a pipe down to
the bottom of the hole.
And pump cement grout
from the bottom of the hole all the
way up to the top and then
pull that drill casing out so the
whole thing is cemented up.
And that's the same type of
procedure that's required for
anybody that's doing any kind of
drilling. Again, for exploration
purposes or scientific research,
et cetera.
It's a lot of concrete.
It's lot of of concrete, but it's
very standard in the industry.
So that's, the way
the practice works today.
Just from the computer graphing
that we saw, there's
holes all over around here, right?
It's not just right here.
That's correct.
Yeah, so the site that we're
drilling has previously been
explored going back to the mid
1980s.
And so as we saw
earlier in the core shed, we've
got all that exploration
core from those previous drill
programs. So you're right.
If you walk through the area,
there's literally been 50
to 75 drill holes
that have been drilled through this
area already.
And again, if you didn't know
about it, you wouldn't know that any
of that was done in this area.
And there's no evidence that that's
caused any environmental damage
or... Yeah.
There's no evidence that it's
caused any damage.
I've been in the industry for 35
years and understandably
people have concerns about
impacts to water during a mining
operation and that's
a different ball game.
But for exploration purposes, I'm
not aware of any exploration
program that's ever caused
any harm to either groundwater or
surface water.
So when you're doing the community
outreach, is there,
do you draw a distinction between
exploration and mining?
Because obviously one hopefully
leads to the other, but
if people's concerns are about what
a mine looks like versus
exploration, are you trying to
like separate those out?
Yeah, that's a very good question.
You're exactly right.
That's that's exactly how we
talk to the public about it is,
you know, we're
in the exploration stage now.
So at this site,
obviously, we would hope that
the drilling data shows that
there could be a mine here someday,
but we don't have an answer to that
question that that's
going to require more drilling.
So there's
certain set of regulations that
we operate under for exploration.
Just because we do exploration
at a site doesn't mean there's
necessarily going to be a mine
there.
And if there does end up
being a mine, that doesn't mean
there is going to a mine here next
year.
We've got to do a lot of exploration
work.
And then we've got do a a lot
engineering analysis and
environmental studies to come up
with what we think is a
viable, permittable
mine plan.
And then we would start the
permitting process.
So that's probably four
to five years down the road.
How do you respond to people who
say, well, I will oppose a mind, so
why should I be okay with
you? Like, I'd rather not know
whether it's worth looking for
or not.
Well, there's certainly going to be,
there certainly as we've met with
the public we've,
we've seen kind of people in
kind of three different camps,
if you will.
One, there is obviously going to
a group that's very supportive.
There's going to some folks that
are kind of in the middle, wanting
to learn more information.
And then there's a small group that
I would say that just
are, you know, I don't want it in my
backyard.
We recognize that there's
those different public perceptions
out there.
What we've told people is
that in our public meetings
is we want to hear from
everybody and we
want know what their questions are,
whether they're for or they've got
concerns.
We will attempt to answer their
questions as best we can based
on the information that we have now.
And as we continue doing
exploration, We continue
doing these.
Engineering studies and looking at
alternatives, we want to take
all that public input into account
and share the results of
that with the public as we
progressively go through this
process.
Anything else you want to add just
immediately on the area or
anything around here?
I think that's good.
Yeah, so we're
able to walk through here, right?