The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Engineers and consultants are expected to produce project's baseline document and mine plan for public scrutiny in a few months
PEBBLE - Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively opened his June 21 presentation to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Make it Monday Forum with the query, "How many people here have heard of the Pebble Mine Project?" The room resonated with laughter in response to Shively's rhetorical question.
Though everyone at the luncheon, like the majority of their fellow Alaskans, have been inundated with media coverage regarding Pebble, not even Shively knows what the final plan for the project will be.
The US$72.9 million that the Pebble Partnership budgeted for environmental studies, exploration and engineering in 2010 is expected to provide the final bits of information that engineers need to complete a plan for mining copper, gold and molybdenum from the enormous deposit in Southwest Alaska.
The 20 senior engineers and technical specialists from Pebble partners Anglo American plc and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., working with 58 leading engineering firms and specialized consultants from around the world, are nearing the completion of an extensive feasibility study for the Pebble Project.
"The engineering program underway at the Pebble Project today, and the comprehensive environmental and socioeconomic studies that have informed that effort, represent the most exhaustive pre-permitting planning exercise in the history of U.S. mineral development," Northern Dynasty President and CEO Ron Thiessen said.
With this in-depth investigation nearing completion, the Pebble Partnership hopes to have a project to present to Alaskans early in 2011.
Time and money
The Pebble Partnership, which has pushed back the proposed date for completing the feasibility study and entering the permitting process, has adopted the axiom "it takes time to do things right."
The adage, it takes money to do things right, also could be applied to permitting the world-class copper deposit. The partners will have spent more than half a billion dollars on the feasibility study before it is complete.
"By the time we apply for development permits next year, some US$500 million will have been invested to ensure we have designed the best possible project from a technical, financial, environmental and socioeconomic perspective. We fully expect the quality of that work to be reflected in the outcome and efficiency of the permitting process," Thiessen said.
While engineers hammer out the final details of the feasibility study, environmental consultants are finishing the compilation of the comprehensive baseline information collected at Pebble.
"There are two key documents that stakeholders should anticipate for review in advance of permitting," Shively said. "First is the environmental baseline document that will compile data and analysis from all of the environmental studies undertaken (during) the past five years. Second is (the Pebble Partnership's) preliminary development plan. Both are essential for advancing the project into permitting. When the preliminary development plan is in place, we will share it with regional stakeholders in advance of filing for permits."
Baseline tome
More than US$120 million of the capital spent at Pebble has been allocated to environmental studies. The information gathered from this work is being accumulated into an environmental baseline document. This 6,000-page tome will be a compilation of the massive amount of data collected from the Pebble region since 2004.
"This is arguably going to be one of the most studied areas in the state of Alaska. The partnership began intensive environmental studies in 2004.To date we have invested over US$120 million in those studies," Pebble Partnership spokesman Mike Heatwole said during a July 18 tour of the Pebble deposit.
"They cover a wide range of areas but the focus is primarily on water and fish," he added.
While Mining News was on site, biologists were in the field conducting a fish counting study as part of the ongoing environmental work in the region.
Heatwole said roughly a third of this year's budget will be spent on environmental studies and completion of the baseline document.
The baseline document is scheduled to be released by the end of 2010. For those who don't want to thumb through the 6,000-page version, a 150-page technical summary and 30-some page popular summary also will be available.
Drilling for barren ground
This year's geological exploration is the second key component to completing a mine plan for Pebble.
Two rigs drilling on site this year are not looking to expand the 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum known to exist in the massive deposit. Instead, one rig drilling to the north of the deposit is seeking unmineralized areas suitable for constructing buildings and other mine facilities, while the second rig is investigating interesting geophysical features southwest of the deposit area.
"Until the latter part of last year, we hadn't drilled a hole outside the Pebble deposit proper - other than geotechnical or engineering drill holes, which are looking at overburden characteristics - since 2002," Pebble Chief Geologist Jim Lang told Mining News.
If the northern drilling successfully misses mineralization, this information will assist engineers in determining where to position the mill and other facilities needed to process the ore that would be excavated from the deposit if the project reaches production.
"This year we are drilling outside of the deposit. We are exploring other geochemical and geophysical anomalies on the property in order to see if we overlooked anything; other zones of mineralization," Lang explained. "As part of the feasibility process you also have to go out and drill all those areas where you are going to put any infrastructure, to make sure you are not building your processing plant on top of the deposit."
Pebble neighbors
As Pebble wends its way toward feasibility, neighboring prospects are getting attention in 2010.
In July, Northern Dynasty acquired about 13 percent of the Big Chunk and Bonanza Hills properties from cash-strapped Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. The Pebble partner paid C$1 million for the 60.7 square kilometers, or 23.4 square miles, of prospective property and also agreed to loan Liberty Star C$3 million to be secured by the remaining 87 percent of the smaller junior's land packages.
Big Chunk is porphyry copper-gold prospect that lies adjacent to Pebble to the north and Bonanza Hills is a high-grade gold prospect located about 40 miles, or 64 kilometers, northeast of Big Chunk.
Northern Dynasty can earn a 60 percent interest in the Big Chunk and Bonanza Hills projects by spending C$10 million on those properties over six years.
According to Mining News sources, these are held solely by Northern Dynasty but the Pebble Partnership has 90 days to decide if it wants to consolidate the claims into its land package.
Kennecott Exploration Inc., another company with ties to Pebble, is conducting an exploration program at the Groundhog property about six miles, or 10 kilometers, northeast of Pebble. The Rio Tinto subsidiary has optioned the porphyry copper-gold prospect from Anchorage-based geological consulting firm Alaska Earth Sciences.
During a recent presentation held in the community of Nondalton located about 11 miles, or 18 kilometers, east of the Groundhog project, Kennecott Exploration Manager Russ Franklin said the company is targeting deep mineralization with its first-pass geophysical program at Groundhog.
Rio Tinto has nearly a 10 percent stake in Pebble through its 19.9 percent ownership in Northern Dynasty.
There are also indications that Full Metal Minerals Ltd. has a prospective partner for its Pebble South project.
Pebble South borders the Pebble Partnership's property to the south and west and the junior believes Pebble-style mineralization trends to the southwest onto its property. Geochemical and geophysical surveys have delineated 11 promising prospects on Full Metal's property.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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