Wealthy opponents target Northern Dynasty

Vancouver – Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM-V, NAK-X) says well-funded opponents are lining up against its plans to develop one of the world’s largest copper-gold deposits in Alaska.

The Vancouver company says opposition to its massive Pebble project is being spearheaded by Robert Gillam, an Alaskan money manager who owns a sports fishing and hunting lodge located about 30 miles away from the project site.

“We are very aware of where this is coming from,” said Sean Magee, a spokesman for Northern Dynasty, a Hunter Dickinson group company which is 10 per cent owned by Rio Tinto (RTP-N) subsidiary Kennecott Canada Exploration.

“He [Mr. Gillam] has taken a particular interest in the project and has spent a lot of money trying to delay it,” said Mr. Magee.

But when reached at his home in Anchorage and asked about his reasons for opposing the mine, Mr. Gillam declined to comment.

“I’m a private citizen and I’m entitled to my opinions,” he said. Aside from his interests in sports fishing, Mr. Gillam is also President of Anchorage-money management firm McKinley Capital Management.

Northern Dynasty officials believe he is only one player in a broad campaign to stop the Pebble project from being developed.

Last week, Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Earthworks stepped up the campaign by paying between US$10,000 and US$20,000 to place an ad in the January, February and March issues of National Jeweller magazine.

A copy obtained by The Northern Miner described the project is a threat to Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, an area it described as critical habitat for 43 million salmon, as well as caribou, freshwater seals, grizzly bears and trout.

By appealing directly to jewellry buyers, Earthworks has launched a new phase in an opposition campaign that has been running for several months, said Mr. Magee. “The ad is an effort to gain media attention,” he said.

However, it ignores the fact that gold and molybdenum will be mere by-products in an operation that will be producing mainly copper in concentrates.

As the concentrates will be refined in Asian smelters, Mr. Magee said it is unlikely that North American jewelers will emerge as end markets for metals produced at Pebble.

Still, the massive Alaskan project is now head and shoulders above any other large deposit not controlled by a major mining company, said Andrew Mikitchook, a mining analyst with Westwind Partners in Toronto.

In situ resources in two deposits are estimated to be 49 billion pounds of copper, 64 million oz. gold and 2.9 billion pounds of molybdenum.

Faced with developing a project on that scale, Northern Dynasty is expected to bring in a major mining company to assist with what is expected to be a complex and lengthy permitting process.

Mr. Magee described the process as “rigorous” but said the company does not expect to start applying for some of the 60 permits that will be required until 2008.

When it does, it will be dealing with 11 different Federal and state agencies.

Meanwhile, the fact that a Rio Tinto subsidiary has taken a 10 per cent stake in Northern Dynasty should not deter other potential partners, according to Westwind’s Mr. Mikitchoo.

“Rio’s stake is not a controlling interest, does not come with a board position, and has no direct property rights,” he said in a report. “It should not stymie negotiations with eventual partners.”

When Kennecott acquired the interest in July it paid $87.5 million for 8.75 million shares of Northern Dynasty, priced at $10 each.On January 5, the shares closed at $8.85 on the TSX Venture Exchange.