WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) -- Marathon County's mining ordinance and metallic mining committee are both about six months old following the repeal of Wisconsin's so-called "mining moratorium," but it remains unclear if both will be put into serious action in the near future.
County Administrator Brad Karger says he is unaware of any immediate plans to mine the gold deposit located in the Town of Easton. "When they're going to mine it? I don't know. But I don't think it's going to be anytime soon. But, I would bet five years from now they'll start to talk about the mine."
Michigan-based Aquila Resources owns the rights to mine that deposit. Karger says they also have other interests and prefer to handle just one project at a time.
He says the primary purpose for both the ordinance and the committee is to make sure that any company that does mine does so in a responsible manner and is respectful to the county and its land. "They'll only be here for 10 years, [they can't] just leave us a mess- poison the water and land, make the property values drop in that area because of the way the mine was left."
Should Aquila choose to mine the sulfide deposit in Easton, Karger says it would mean good-paying jobs for Marathon County for the duration of the mine. That means working with them and not against them. "We want to work in partnership with the company, not create an adversary relationship. Even small things like dust and noise are important to the people who live next to it, so we need to have that ongoing dialog."
Other environmental issues will be handled by the Wisconsin DNR.
Marathon County's Metallic Mining committee will continue to meet monthly to craft a framework for how the relationship between the county and the mining company will be structured.
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