An unnamed investor has agreed to inject up to $60 million into the Pebble Mine project. This proposed copper-gold-molybdenum mining project is located in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska. The owners, Northern Dynasty Minerals of Vancouver, B.C., are hoping the money will help allow it to reverse the major federal permitting actions that have been put in place against the project.
Northern Dynasty Minerals of Vancouver, B.C., has chosen to not name the investor, a private asset-management company, partly because there is no requirement to. Mike Westerlund, vice president of investor relations for Northern Dynasty announced. This new investment was announced back on July 27 this year. The other reason not to name the private asset-management company was the concern of possible future backlash to that company from opponents of the Pebble Mine. This would be in an effort to discourage the company’s investment.
The Pebble mineral deposit is the big issue, it is located 200 miles southwest of Anchorage right near the headwaters of the rivers that support the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Opponents of the Pebble Mine Project have said that pollution from the mine imperils the bay system and the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. That sockeye fishery enjoyed record runs once again this summer.
Northern Dynasty Minerals on the other hand says they are fully capable of mining the deposit without causing pollution to the water. This may be true, but their original mine plan was shut down by the Army Core of Engineers back in 2020 due to its proposed mine discharge plan. So that doesn’t make for the brightest outlook for possible mine tailings control in the future.
As of now, the plans for the mine are not moving forwards, and there is a public comment period on a “Proposed Determination” to Protect Bristol Bay by the EPA. Comments are being accepted until September 6th. If the proposal is passed, this would block the Pebble Mine project. If that happens it would be a big victory for the Tribal groups and commercial and subsistence fishermen from the Bristol Bay region who rely on the world’s most valuable salmon fishery, valued at more than $2 billion annually.
