The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Canada鈥檚 Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX:NDM) put an end Friday to a long-dragged dispute over the federal agency鈥檚聽decision to block construction of the firm鈥檚 vast copper-gold-silver project in Alaska.
The that could allow Northern Dynasty鈥檚 subsidiary 鈥� Pebble Limited Partnership 鈥斅爐o move forward with the proposed Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska.
鈥淣ot only are we no longer facing extraordinary development restrictions at Pebble, we will also be assured a fair and predictable permitting review鈥� 鈥� President and CEO Ron Thiessen.
鈥淭he Pebble Partnership will advance a progressive mine plan, including mitigation, to be assessed by objective, expert regulators at the US Army Corps of Engineers and a raft of other federal and state agencies 鈥� including EPA鈥�, the company鈥檚 President and CEO Ron Thiessen .
鈥淣ot only are we no longer facing extraordinary development restrictions at Pebble, we will also be assured a fair and predictable permitting review of our proposed development plan,鈥� Thiessen noted.
Investors reacted positively to the news with聽the company鈥檚 shares spiking almost 8% to Cdn$3.26 in Toronto at 9:39 am local time. The miner鈥檚 stock price has been doing quite well ever since Donald Trump鈥檚 election victory. After dropping to as low as 25 cents a share at one point last year, the price skyrocketed after the November election, climbing 25% overnight and reaching as high as $3.18 earlier this year, a mark surpassed today after the news.
The agreement聽comes only a month after聽Alaska鈥檚 Department of Natural Resources (DNR) approved聽granted the Vancouver-based miner a , which allows it to聽to conduct reclamation and monitoring activities at hundreds of boreholes for the next 12 months.
The Pebble Partnership sued EPA in 2014 over the on environmental and tribal sovereignty grounds before the company had submitted its permit applications.
Such ruling聽triggered a legal dispute between the environmental watchdog and Pebble Limited, as well as congressional probes into the validity of the EPA鈥檚 action.
One of the company鈥檚 main claims was that the agency聽聽and that some of its staff should have been found to be聽.
Pebble project location. (Courtesy of )
But opposition to the controversial project began earlier than that, in聽the mid-2000s. A 2006-聽revealed that 53% of Alaskans oppose it; a second poll ran by聽聽that same year found that 71% were against it, and聽聽presented in 2011 stated that 85% of commercial fishermen also reject the project.
Environmentalists, Native American groups, local businesses, a coalition of fishing operators聽and even the EPA itself have repeatedly expressed concerns about the 鈥渋rreversible negative impacts鈥� of the mine in one of the planet鈥檚 greatest wild salmon fisheries, and the risk it would represent in their view to 14,000 jobs and the $252 million-a-year the聽local fishing industry generates.
EPA 鈥榮 current administrator Scott Pruitt said the announced deal with the the mining company 鈥渨ill聽not guarantee or prejudge a particular outcome, but will provide Pebble a fair process for their permit application.鈥�
鈥淲e understand how much the community cares about this issue, with passionate advocates on all sides,鈥澛燩ruitt said in a statement. 鈥淲e are committed to listening to all voices as this process unfolds.鈥�
The Pebble deposit is one of the greatest stores of mineral wealth ever discovered,聽. The current resource estimate includes 6.44 billion tonnes in the measured and indicated categories containing 57 billion pounds of copper, 70 million ounces of gold, 3.4 billion pounds of molybdenum and 344 million of silver.