Port site chosen for Pebble mine project

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has zeroed in on a port site on the southwest corner of Iniskin Bay on Cook Inlet, to serve its Pebble deposit, a proposed open pit, gold-copper-molybdenum-silver mine near Iliamna in Southwestern Alaska, according to Bruce Jenkins, director of corporate affairs. The port site is approximately 65 miles from the deposit.

The company has also, in conjunction with the Alaska Department of Transportation, established a preferred road corridor leading from the port site to the Pebble deposit, with connections to local villages, he said. When completed, the road and port will be used for shipping copper-gold-silver and molybdenum concentrates to offshore smelters, and for supplying the mine operation.

Jenkins told Mining News Oct. 26 that the company was in the process of breaking camp and winding down its field operations for 2004, and that it expected expenditures on the project to reach $25 million for the year. During the work season, the company completed 40 kilometers of delineation drilling to classify the deposit's resources and make geotechnical, metallurgical and hydrological assessments. It completed wetlands surveys on more than 100,000 acres - 70,000 acres at the mine site, and 30,000 acres within the road corridor. More than 1,800 field plots were established, and more than 4,500 photographs were taken.

Three permanent stream monitoring stations were installed by the U.S. Geological Survey on the three major drainages of the mine area. The company installed an additional 25 monitoring stations of its own to gain a more precise knowledge of water flow in the area, Jenkins said.

Not affected by new mixing zone regulations

As currently envisioned, the company's plans will not be affected by the outcome of proposed new mixing zone regulations under consideration by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. There will be no discharge into waterways, Jenkins said.

Engineering, environmental and socioeconomic data gathered over the summer will be studied over the winter with an eye to completion of a bankable feasibility study by the third quarter of 2005, he said.

The goal is to make applications for permits for the construction, operation and closure of the mine before the end of 2005.

The state of Alaska and the company have executed a memorandum of understanding detailing a cooperative relationship between the state and the company that will govern and expedite the permitting process for the project.

Under the MOU, the state will designate a dedicated interagency review team to ensure that adequate agency resources are committed to work on the permitting process.

Alaska firms employed

Jenkins said the company promised at the onset to use Alaska firms and employees to complete work on the project, and that the company had fulfilled that promise in a big way.

He said that of the $12.5 million spent as of the end of the month of August more than 82 percent of the expenditures were in Alaska.

Of the 26 environmental, engineering and consulting firms working on the project, 80 percent were Alaskan.

Among the firms hired for work at Pebble, the company said, were ABR Inc., Bristol Environmental & Engineering Services Corp., Buell & Associates Inc., CH2M Hill Inc., Columbia Analytical Services Inc., Eagle Mapping Group, HDR Alaska Inc., Knight Piesold Ltd., Kodiak Mapping Inc., North Creek Analytical Inc., Northern Ecological Services, Resource Data Inc., SGS/CT & E Environmental Services Inc., Shaw Environmental Inc., Steffen Robertson and Kirsten Inc., Roscoe Postle Associates Inc., Stephen R. Braund & Associates, Three Parameters Plus and Water Management Consultants Inc. Northern Dynasty, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, opened a 4,500 square foot Alaska office earlier this year at 3201 C Street in Anchorage.

It has hired Angie Girkin, a resident of the Lake Clark/Lake Iliamna area, as a full time community relations officer.

"We told people we were going to do this, and the proof is in the pudding," he said.

Completing the deal

Northern Dynasty acquired an option on the Pebble property in 2002 from Teck Cominco, and it must make a final payment of $10 million by a Nov. 30 deadline to assure its interest in the 36 mineral claims that host the deposit. The prospect was discovered by a geologist working for Cominco American in 1987.

Jenkins told Mining News the company was more bullish than ever on the property after the summer's work, and that it was currently deciding whether to complete the payment in cash, stock, or a combination of the two. He said there is no question that the company will exercise its option, adding that the company met or exceeded requirements for studies and drilling called for in performance clauses of the contract.

"You can rest assured we will make the payment," he said.