VANCOUVER,
May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Northern
Dynasty Minerals Ltd. ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") (TSX:
NDM; NYSE Amex: NAK) comments on the draft Bristol Bay Watershed
Assessment report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) on May 18, 2012, calling
the initiative to study potential effects of mineral development in
a vast region of southwest Alaska
'rushed and inadequate.'
"As Northern Dynasty and subsequently as part of
the Pebble Partnership, we have invested nearly 10 years and
hundreds of millions of dollars studying the natural and human
environment surrounding the Pebble Project, and methodically
advancing a development strategy that will allow us to develop the
globally significant resources of copper, gold and molybdenum there
while protecting fisheries, water quality and traditional ways of
life," said Northern Dynasty President & CEO Ron Thiessen,
"So to suggest that the EPA over a course of a
single year can meaningfully study a region of some 20,000 square
miles and assess the effects of a project for which a final design
is not yet complete, and for which key environmental mitigation
strategies are yet being developed, is pure hubris. We have every
expectation that the deep flaws in the draft Bristol Bay Watershed
Assessment report will be exposed during the scientific peer review
and public comment processes to come over the next several
months."
Thiessen referred to the public statement on the
EPA's draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment report released by the
Pebble Limited Partnership (the "Pebble Partnership" or "PLP")
Chief Executive Officer John Shively
last week:
Pebble CEO Calls EPA Process Rushed and Inadequate
"As long‐time proponents of responsible resource development in
Alaska, we have significant
concerns regarding the EPA's approach to the Bristol Bay Watershed
Assessment. We believe that the EPA has rushed its assessment
process, and that this is especially problematic in light of the
large size of the study area. We have taken several years and
expended considerable resources to study the ecosystem in a small
area around the Pebble deposit, while the EPA has, in only one year
and with limited resources, completed a draft assessment in
relation to an area of approximately 20,000 square miles. We
believe that this explains why the EPA's work has not yet
approached the level of rigor and completeness required for a
scientific assessment.
"Furthermore, we are concerned that the EPA may use this rushed
process as the basis for an unprecedented regulatory action against
the Pebble Project. We believe it would be unprecedented and
entirely inappropriate for the EPA to take steps to stop our
project before it has been fully designed, before we have presented
an environmental mitigation strategy designed to protect the fish
and water resources of the area, before we have completed an
economic benefits study and before we have submitted a permit
application and started the rigorous permitting process. Until we
complete our work and submit an application under NEPA, the EPA's
work as it relates to our project is based entirely on
speculation.
"The Pebble deposit is located on State of Alaska lands that are open to mineral
exploration and development. As such, the State has expressed
strong objection about the entire process the EPA is undertaking in
this area. At Statehood, the federal government granted
Alaska access to lands in order to
develop an economy for the new state. Federal intrusions such as
those facilitated by the EPA's watershed assessment initiative
clearly strike at the heart of the agreement between the state and
the federal government, and could have a chilling effect on future
resource development investments in Alaska.
"Further, this entire process is particularly disappointing
because it seems to directly conflict with the stated goals of
President Obama, who has said that U.S. government agencies need to
simplify and streamline permitting and regulatory processes to help
the economy and create jobs. This is an example of the
Environmental Protection Agency doing exactly the opposite by
adding new hurdles to the rigorous and established regulatory
process.
"It is worth noting that PLP has spent several years and
expended significant resources studying a substantially smaller
land area surrounding Pebble, while the EPA's limited time frame
allocated to studying natural resources in this vast area comes
nowhere near providing the science needed to adequately conduct
their assessment. We certainly don't question the appropriate
statutory role of the EPA in evaluating projects like the Pebble
Project. In fact, we voluntarily provided over 20,000 pages of
detailed environmental studies to the EPA to assist their
understanding of this complex ecosystem and we are convinced the
agency did not utilize the information in a meaningful way due to
the artificial short time frame they have used to reach a
conclusion. We do take strong exception to this misguided effort
that steps outside of the well‐established regulatory process to
rush through this watershed assessment to potentially reach
pre‐ordained conclusions.
"Additionally, the draft watershed assessment is fundamentally
flawed for the following reasons:
- the EPA has undertaken to study in one year a nearly 20,000
square mile area in Southwest
Alaska ‐ about the size of the states of Maryland and New
Jersey combined - that would need several years of diligent
effort to achieve its stated goals;
- the EPA has attempted to assess the effects of a project that
has not yet been finalized or undergone the rigorous permitting
process required by State and federal law;
- the EPA has prepared and distributed a report that does not
live up to the agency's own standards for undertaking watershed
assessments, as reflected in EPA guidance and assessment activities
in other U.S. jurisdictions. Specifically, the draft report: relies
on a hypothetical mining project with hypothetical environmental
impacts; estimates impacts resulting from only one stressor source
(i.e. mining), notwithstanding Region 10 policy to address
environmental risks "in a comprehensive, holistic fashion" reflects
an unprecedented narrow focus on a single mining project and single
policy option; and improperly adds economic analysis, and then in a
biased fashion.
"Many statewide business and trade associations as well as
Alaska Native tribes and village corporations have expressed
similar concerns and objections about the EPA's actions and have
asked the EPA to stop its work until a formal permit application is
in front of the agency. The investment uncertainties created by the
EPA's short‐sighted actions have the potential to inhibit
development projects not only throughout Alaska, but nationwide."
About the Pebble Project
The Pebble Project is an initiative of the
Pebble Partnership to responsibly develop a globally significant
copper, gold and molybdenum deposit in southwest Alaska into a modern, long-life mine. The
project is located 200 miles southwest of Anchorage on state land
designated through two public land use planning exercises for
mineral exploration and development. It is situated approximately
1,000 feet above sea-level, 65 miles from tidewater on Cook Inlet
and presents favourable conditions for successful mine site and
infrastructure development.
The Pebble Project consists of the Pebble
deposit, surrounding mineral claims and a stream of financing being
provided by Northern Dynasty's project partner Anglo American US
(Pebble) LLC. The Pebble Partnership was established in
July 2007 as a 50:50 partnership
between a wholly-owned affiliate of Northern Dynasty and a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Anglo
American plc. Both Northern Dynasty and Anglo American have equal ownership and
direction of the Pebble Partnership.
Under the terms of the Pebble Limited
Partnership Agreement, Anglo
American is required to elect to commit $1.5 billion in staged investments in order to
retain its 50% interest in the Pebble Project. Funds provided by
Anglo American are currently being
invested in comprehensive exploration, engineering, environmental
and socioeconomic programs toward the future development of the
Pebble Project.
About Northern Dynasty
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is a mineral
exploration and development company based in Vancouver, Canada, which holds indirect
interests in 650 square miles of mineral claims in southwest
Alaska, USA. Northern Dynasty's
principal asset is a 50% interest in the Pebble Partnership, owner
of the Pebble Copper-Gold-Molybdenum Project. The Pebble Project is
an advanced-stage initiative to develop one of the most important
mineral resources in the world.
Review Canadian public filings at www.sedar.com
and US public filings at www.sec.gov.
Ronald W.
Thiessen
President & CEO
Sole Responsibility
No regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy
or accuracy of this release. Northern Dynasty is solely and
entirely responsible for the contents of this news release. No
other party, including any parties which have an interest in the
project, are in any way responsible for the contents hereof.
Forward Looking Information and other
Cautionary Factors
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed
"forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other
than statements of historical facts, especially those that address
estimated resource quantities, grades and contained metals, are
forward-looking statements because they are generally made on the
basis of estimation and extrapolation from a limited number of
drill holes and metallurgical studies. Although diamond drill hole
core provides valuable information about the size, shape and
geology of an exploration project, there will always remain a
significant degree of uncertainty in connection with these
valuation factors until a deposit has been extensively drilled on
closely spaced centers, which has occurred only in specific areas
on the Pebble Project. Although the Company believes the
expectations expressed in its forward-looking statements are based
on reasonable assumptions, such statements should not be in any way
construed as guarantees of the ultimate size, quality or commercial
feasibility of the Pebble Project or of the Company's future
performance. The likelihood of future mining at the Pebble Project
is subject to a large number of risks and will require achievement
of a number of technical, economic and legal objectives, including
obtaining necessary mining and construction permits, completion of
pre-feasibility and final feasibility studies, preparation of all
necessary engineering for underground workings and processing
facilities as well as receipt of significant additional financing
to fund these objectives as well as funding mine construction. Such
funding may not be available to the Company on acceptable terms or
on any terms at all. There is no known ore at the Pebble Project
and there is no assurance that the mineralization at the Pebble
Project will ever be classified as ore. The need for compliance
with extensive environmental and socio-economic rules and practices
and the requirement for the Company to obtain government permitting
can cause a delay or even abandonment of a mineral project. The
Company is also subject to the specific risks inherent in the
mining business as well as general economic and business
conditions. For more information on the Company, Investors should
review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission and its home jurisdiction
filings that are available at www.sedar.com.
SOURCE Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.