Mining News
State of Alaska to appeal Pebble project permit denial
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(Kitco News) - Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX:NDM) (NYSE:NAK) reported today that the Office of Alaska State Governor Mike Dunleavy announced that his administration will formally appeal the US Army Corps of Engineers' ("USACE") November 25, 2020 denial of a key federal permit for Alaska's Pebble Project.
Northern Dynasty said that in a statement released January 8, 2021, Governor Dunleavy pointed out that the USACE's Record of Decision and accompanying denial of a Clean Water Act 404 permit for the proposed copper-gold-molybdenum-silver-rhenium project in southwest Alaska is "flawed (and)…creates a dangerous precedent that will undoubtedly harm Alaska's future."
The company added that as owner of the land and subsurface mineral estate at Pebble, the State of Alaska has the right - along with Northern Dynasty's 100%-owned US-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership, which owns state-issued mineral claims at the property - to launch an administrative appeal of the USACE's permitting decision.
"The Alaska District's decision has far-reaching and ominous implications for our rights as a state to develop our resources for the benefit of all Alaskans, whether its mineral deposits like Pebble, or oil and gas on the North Slope, or other resources anywhere in the state," said Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige. "The Alaska Constitution specifically directs us to develop our resources in the public interest. When a federal agency arbitrarily tries to deprive us of our rights with the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen, we simply must challenge that action."
Northern Dynasty is a mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, Canada. Northern Dynasty's principal asset is a 100% interest in a contiguous block of 2,402 mineral claims in southwest Alaska, including the Pebble deposit.
