Green Light Wisconsin Continues Exploratory Drilling for Rare Metals

Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 -- 8:01 AM

(Daneille Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio) Just off a gravel road, heavy mats cover mud and wet soil on an access route to the site where mining company Green Light Wisconsin has just finished drilling a hole to explore for copper and gold in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

In the woods, a backhoe and a skid-steer are visible and a water truck is parked in front of a drill rig. For late July, the air is relatively cool and thick with mosquitoes from recent rains.

Yellow caution tape is tied between trees, and socks full of wood chips line the perimeter to trap any sediment runoff. Drilling crews wearing hard hats take cement from a pallet to mix it in a tank.

It will be pumped down to seal the first two of six holes drilled up to 1,000 feet below ground. Deep beneath the surface, company officials hope cores of bedrock they’ve collected will show evidence of rare metals at the Bend deposit in Taylor County.

It’s believed to contain around 4.2 million tons of copper and gold. Steve Donohue, a director on the company’s board, said Green Light is expanding exploration for not only copper and gold, but also tellurium.

The rare metalloid is used in electronics and in the manufacture of solar panels. Donohue said those metals are key for domestic energy production and the clean energy transition.

Even so, he said the company is in the early stages of exploration. “We’re not at a stage where we’re looking at developing a mine. It’s just proving out the resource,” Donohue said. “Other things we will be looking at are other leases and other sites within the northern part of the state.”

Exploration for metallic mines is fairly rare. This project is the first activity in Wisconsin since a company drilled for zinc, copper and gold in Oneida County five years ago.

In 2011, mining company Gogebic Taconite announced controversial plans to build a $1.5 billion iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin, but it abandoned the project four years later.

Metals like gold and copper that occur in sulfide minerals haven’t been mined in Wisconsin since the Flambeau mine shut down in 1997. That mine served as a catalyst for the state’s sulfide mining moratorium signed into law by Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson.

In 2017, that moratorium was repealed under a law passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Scott Walker. The changes paved the way for mining sulfide ore bodies, which environmentalists and tribes fear will lead to water contamination.

Green Light Wisconsin plans to drill for metals like gold and copper at several other deposits in Marathon, Oneida and Jackson counties. As drilling is ongoing, Wisconsin tribes and environmental groups have voiced concerns about the potential effects to groundwater, wetlands and cultural sites.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.