Pebble Partnership begins to assemble mine permit team

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. March 8 said Pebble Limited Partnership has selected HDR Alaska, Inc. to serve as lead regulatory and permitting consultant for the world-class Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska.

HDR will assist in preparing the documentation Pebble Partnership will need to initiate federal and state permitting by the end of the year, in anticipation of a successful outcome of the company's strategy to address the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's pre-emptive regulatory action that placed cumbersome restrictions on Pebble prior to the project entering the permitting process.

HDR has provided environmental and technical consulting services to Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Partnership since 2004, with a specific focus on wetlands, water, aquatic habitat and fish studies.

Much of this work was represented in theUS$150 million, 27,000-page Pebble Environmental Baseline Document published in 2012.

In its current role, HDR will continue select environmental baseline field studies and analyses at the Pebble project, as well as provide strategic regulatory guidance to the Pebble Partnership as it finalizes the engineering design, environmental planning and documentation required to file permit applications with the US Army Corps of Engineers.

"HDR is one of the many respected Alaska-based consulting firms that have provided professional services to the Pebble project for well over a decade, so they're already intimately familiar with the unique challenges and opportunities presented by our project," said Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier. "As a firm, HDR not only has an enviable track record for helping permit some of Alaska's most prominent mines, energy and infrastructure development projects, their senior personnel are also former federal and state regulators, with a deep understanding of regulatory processes and requirements for permitting success in Alaska and the United States."

While HDR will play a leading role, the Pebble Partnership intends to assemble a team of additional engineering, environmental and regulatory experts to support the project's 2017 work program and permitting requirements over the next several years.

"We expect to be making further announcements in the weeks and months ahead about our 2017 field program and the work required to prepare the project to initiate permitting," Collier said. "We're very pleased the project is moving forward, and that we're in a position to begin to re-hire local residents and Alaska firms that have contributed so much to Pebble's advancements in years past."

-SHANE LASLEY