Company proposes gold exploration in central Wisconsin

A Canadian-based minerals company is going to explore for gold in central Wisconsin.

Aquila Resources is applying for a license to do exploratory drilling at the Reef Gold Deposit in eastern Marathon County, not far from Wausau. Department of Natural Resources mining coordinator Philip Fauble says the site has been poked and picked at for years.

“There was actually an old gold mine shaft that had been drilled there back in the turn of the 19th century,” says Fauble. “People have just sporadically drilled at this site…almost for the past 100 years. Noranda did some extensive drilling out there in the 1980’s, but eventually they decided it was not economical for them to pursue it. So, these guys look like they want to go back and take a look at it.”

Fauble says this isn’t a large body of gold.

Aquila President Thomas Quigley says exploratory drilling does not necessarily mean they’ll re-open the Reef Mine. He says they’re doing some preliminary exploration work in a few spots to assess the potential.

“Discovery is a rare thing,” added Quigley.

Aquila is also doing exploratory drilling for gold on the Michigan side of the Menominee River bordering Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

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