History
The first discovery of copper and gold mineralization at the Pebble property was announced in 1988 by Cominco (now Teck Cominco). The discovery attracted widespread attention, and by 1997 exploration and drilling programs had defined a near-surface mineral deposit of 1.0 billion tonnes within what is now known as the Pebble West deposit. Northern Dynasty Minerals acquired rights to the Pebble Project in 2001, and began exploring the Pebble West deposit in 2002. By early 2004, NDM had invested almost $5 million on drilling programs and almost tripled the resource estimate.
By early 2005, extensive drilling had confirmed a measured and indicated resource of 4.1 billion tonnes containing 42.1 million ounces of gold, 24.7 billion pounds of copper, 1.35 billion pounds of molybdenum and additional silver.
In July, 2007 The Pebble Limited Partnership, an Alaska limited partnership, was formed between a wholly owned US subsidiary of Anglo American PLC and a wholly owned entity of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.to advance the Pebble Project, toward permitting, construction and operations. The deal saw Anglo American, one of the world's leading mine operators become a 50% partner in Pebble with equal rights, in exchange for a staged cash investment of US $1.425 billion
Pebble East Discovery
In September of 2005, it was announced that a deeper but richer deposit has been discovered east of Pebble West. Drill data to year-end 2005 confirmed a 3.4 billion-tonne inferred resource containing 42.6 billion pounds of copper, 39.6 million ounces of gold and 2.7 billion pounds of molybdenum.
The Pebble East deposit expanded the scope and potential of the project because of its higher grades and mineral content, and sent the company back to project definition drawing board to develop an integrated development plan for both deposits. Development and permitting timelines were deferred so more studies could be conducted to support the expanded project.
The Pebble Partnership will continue these studies throughout 2009 to support the preparation of a proposed development plan that will be submitted for government and public review in the next few years. The options being considered include open-pit mining at Pebble West and underground mining at Pebble East.
$90 million was invested on exploration, engineering, environmental and socioeconomic studies in 2007 - including 157,000 feet of drilling at Pebble East. The 2007 drill program led to an increase in the inferred mineral resource at Pebble East, which now stands at 3.9 billion tonnes containing 49 billion pounds of copper, 45 million ounces of gold and 2.8 billion pounds of molybdenum.
Click here for Current Resource Estimates for Pebble West and Pebble East
For current information, see Project Status and Timelines
