All right, 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 re-vegetated. 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 cuttings 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 US 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, healthy, it's stable. 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 who just have concerns at all these exploratory
drilling that go in deep in the earth's surface. What are you pumping in there, the exposure,
what is this proof 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're 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 US 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,
will 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. So 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 silt and stuff like that. And the mineralization
is within that bedrock. And that mineralization could go down maybe 1500 feet from the bedrock
surface. We don't exactly know the extent of all that. Could be a little shallower, could be a little
deeper. But that's 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 the feet. 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 anybody was there. So it's the concern that like
these holes that 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 of drilling in the state. Not just for exploration drilling, it could be for construction
purposes or 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 1500
foot drill hole, we have to abandon that and that means we have to 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, etc. It's a lot of concrete, but it's very standard in the industry. So that's
the way the practice works today. And just from the the computer graphing that we saw,
there's holes all over it right here, right? Like this, 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 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,
you know, 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.
Yeah, there's no evidence that has caused any damage. I've been in the industry for 35 years.
And, you know, 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
talked 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'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 there, that doesn't mean there's going to be a mine here next year.
We've got to do a lot of exploration work. And then we've got to do a lot of engineering analysis
and environmental studies to come up with what we think is a viable, permitable 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 mine. So why should I be okay with
you? Like, I'd rather not know that whether there's where it's worth looking here or not.
Well, there's certainly going to be there certainly as we've met with the public,
we've seen kind of people in kind of three different camps, if you will. One, there's obviously going
to be a group that's very supportive. There's going to be 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 to know what their questions are, whether they're four 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. Okay. Yeah. So we're able to walk with you here, right? Yeah.