Gov. Tommy Thompson used Wednesday’s Earth Day celebration to sign a bill requiring companies to give an example of a pollution-free mine before opening a similar mine in Wisconsin.
In making the so-called mining moratorium bill official, the governor created another hurdle for Nicolet Minerals Co., which wants to open an underground zinc and copper mine near Crandon.
“We do not want a mine in this state that cannot operate safely, without threatening our resources,” the governor said at a signing ceremony near the Wolf River.
Critics of the Crandon mine contend it would endanger the river.
Mine proponents say it would run safely without harming the environment and that it would provide needed jobs in Forest County.
Thompson called the new law “an additional blanket of protection to our environment,” but he had to defend himself from critics who have accused him of being more interested in big business then the environment.
Nicolet Minerals, a subsidiary of Rio Algom Ltd. of Toronto, seeks state and federal permits to remove 55 million tons of copper and zinc ore from a deposit about five miles southwest of Crandon, near the headwaters of the Wolf.
