PLP CEO Presents at Resource Development
Council for Alaska
VANCOUVER, Oct. 5, 2017 /CNW/ - Northern Dynasty Minerals
Ltd. (TSX: NDM; NYSE MKT: NAK) ("Northern Dynasty" or the
"Company") announced that Tom
Collier, President & CEO of the Pebble Limited
Partnership ("Pebble Partnership"), attended today's Breakfast
Forum at the Resource Development Council for Alaska in Anchorage to deliver a presentation
outlining current development considerations for the Pebble Project
that will reduce the project's footprint and significantly enhance
environmental safeguards.
Northern Dynasty has posted the presentation on the homepage and
Project Overview sections of its new website at
www.northerndynasty.com. The presentation will be recorded
and made available for replay by event organizers by the end of the
day at www.akrdc.org.
The presentation includes information that represents some of
the current development scenarios being investigated for the Pebble
Project. The Pebble Partnership continues to consider various
development options and, as such, all current development scenarios
may be revised to include adjustments and improvements as the
Pebble Project advances.
Highlights of the presentation include:
Development Highlights
- Under the development scenario currently being considered, the
footprint of Pebble Project's major mine facilities (pit, tailings
storage facility) would be reduced to approximately 5.4 square
miles.
- Primary mine operations in the Upper Talarik watershed region
would be eliminated, minimizing the project's environmental
footprint and addressing stakeholder concerns relating to the local
salmon population.
- Enhanced Tailing Storage Facilities (TSF) would be constructed
with enhanced buttresses and slope and a greater safety factor.
Potentially acid generating tailings would be separated from other
tailings and be stored in a lined TSF. All tailings storage would
be consolidated to the North Fork Koktuli area.
- Pebble would no longer require the use of waste rock piles,
significantly reducing risk associated with acid rock drainage and
potential related environmental impacts.
- Pebble would not use cyanide in the recovery process. Cyanide
is safely used in Alaska and
around the world to increase gold recovery. However, in order to
respond to stakeholder concerns, Pebble would elect not to utilize
the material for this particular project.
- The development would include the creation of a new ferry route
across Iliamna Lake. The route would minimize the total road
area, stream crossings, bridges, and culverts for the Pebble Mine
and ultimately minimize the project's impact on local wetlands.
- The mine would be designed to withstand the greatest possible
seismicity predicted by science.
Community Benefits
- Estimated annual revenue to the Lake & Peninsula Borough
would be $19-21 million per year.
Estimated annual state revenue would be $49-66 million per year and estimated total job
creation for Alaskans would be 1,500-2,000.
- The project would include a revenue sharing concept to enhance
local and regional financial benefit.
- The project would align with public policy by prioritizing
development of low-cost energy for rural Alaska.
- The Pebble Partnership would work with commercial fishermen on
ways to help with non-Pebble related challenges associated with
price and run variability, and the decline of local participation
in the fishery.
- The development of Pebble would include a business mentoring
initiative to ensure that Alaska Native village corporations are
ready to compete for construction and operations contracts, which
could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
The purpose of the presentation is to facilitate discussions
with stakeholders and does not represent an economic analysis,
technical mine study, detailed engineering proposal or similar
study.
It should not be used as the basis for any investment
decision.
About Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.
Northern Dynasty is a mineral exploration and development
company based in Vancouver,
Canada. Northern Dynasty's principal asset, owned through
its wholly-owned Alaska-based US
subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership and other wholly-owned
subsidiaries, is a 100% interest in a contiguous block of 2,402
mineral claims in southwest Alaska, including the Pebble deposit. The
Pebble Partnership is the proponent of the Pebble Project, an
initiative to develop one of the world's most important mineral
resources.
For further details on Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Project,
please visit the Company's website at www.northerndynasty.com
or contact Investor services at (604) 684-6365 or within
North America at 1-800-667-2114.
Review Canadian public filings at www.sedar.com and US public
filings at www.sec.gov.
Ronald W. Thiessen
President & CEO
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, that address exploration
drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that
the Company expects are forward-looking statements. 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 or the outcome of litigation.
Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward-looking
statements include the following: the Pebble Project will obtain
all required environmental and other permits and all land use and
other licenses, studies and development of the Pebble Project will
continue to be positive, and no geological or technical problems
will occur. 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, approvals,
licenses and title on a timely basis and delays due to third party
opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and
natural resource exploration and exploitation, the final outcome of
any litigation, completion of pre-feasibility and final feasibility
studies, preparation of all necessary engineering for surface or
underground mining 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 filings 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.