Long ago north of Gilman, a mountain building event with volcanic activity left behind sulfide deposits containing precious metals.
Later eroded and then plowed over with glacial sediment, these same deposits turned buried treasure became part of northern Wisconsin and Michigan, known as the Penokean Orogeny. Discovered near Chelsea in 1986 and still buried, the deposits have attracted the attention of Greenlight Wisconsin, a mining company and subsidiary of Greenlight Metals that seeks to undertake further exploration to determine whether the deposits form an economical dig for a proposed mine, to be located in the Chequamegon National Forest. As such Greenlight filed a Notice Of Intent (NOI) with the Wisconsin Department of National Resources (DNR) for additional exploration after a former NOI authorization and resulting drill cores indicated the presence of “significant” copper and gold in the Bend deposit, which also contains trace amounts of silver.
Given conditional approval by the DNR Jan. 29 and set to take place later this year, drilling for additional mine exploration will involve drilling up to 20 holes across 15 locations. Greenlight is required to provide the DNR with approval from the U.S. Forest Service and an updated bond as well as 48 hours notice prior to starting work. The company must also obtain a wetlands permit pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes 281.36 and minimize both impacts to rare species and erosion as it goes about exploration work.
Previous drill exploration took place north of County Highway M on a 40-acre Soo Line mineral parcel along Yellow River Road/Forest Road 112. Drilling for additional exploration will use water from the north fork of the Yellow River. Environmental groups and tribal leaders have expressed concerns about drilling in and around wetlands, even saying exploration should stop altogether for fears of environmental damage and cultural resource harm.
Greenlight has compared the “first mover advantage” of the prospective VMS belt mine to Abitibi or Fli Flon (two Canadian mines) 80 years ago.
An open house with more information was planned by Greenlight for Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. at Lake Eleven Brewing in Medford.