Northern Dynasty Minerals has announced that its 100%-owned, US-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) received formal notification from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) that its application for permits for the Pebble project in Alaska has been denied.
PLP is proposing to develop the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposit in southwest Alaska as an open-pit mine, with associated infrastructure.
The Pebble deposit is one of the greatest stores of mineral wealth ever discovered, and the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold resource.
The current resource estimate includes 6.5 billion tonnes in the measured and indicated categories containing 57 billion lb copper, 71 million oz gold, 3.4 billion lb molybdenum and 345 million oz silver; and 4.5 billion tonnes in the inferred category, containing 25 billion lb copper, 36 million oz gold, 2.2 billion lb molybdenum and 170 million oz silver. Palladium and rhenium also occur in the deposit.
Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively issued the following statement after the lead federal regulator found Pebble’s ‘compensatory mitigation plan’ as submitted earlier this month to be ‘non-compliant’, and that the project is ‘not in the public interest’.
“We are obviously dismayed by today’s news given that the USACE had published an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in July that clearly stated the project could successfully co-exist with the fishery and would have provided substantial economic benefit to the communities closest to the deposit,” reads the statement.
“One of the real tragedies of this decision is the loss of economic opportunities for people living in the area. The EIS clearly describes those benefits, and now a politically driven decision has taken away the hope that many had for a better life. This is also a lost opportunity for the state’s future economy – especially at a time when Alaska is seeing record job losses from the impacts associated with Covid.”
Mr Shively’s notes in the statement that the Pebble Deposit contains minerals such as copper that are in the national interest as they will be necessary to support the nation’s transition to more renewable sources of energy and a lower carbon future.
“Since the beginning of the federal review, our team has worked closely with the USACE staff to understand their requirements for responsibly developing the project including changing the transportation corridor and re-vamping the approach to wetlands mitigation,” it says in the statement.
“All of these efforts led to a comprehensive, positive EIS for the project that clearly stated it could be developed responsibly. It is very disconcerting to see political influence in this process at the eleventh hour.
“For now, we will focus on sorting out next steps for the project including an appeal of the decision by the USACE.”
