Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. - The Pebble Story

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Mineral rights at Pebble were initially held by Cominco (now Teck), who explored the property from 1988 to 1997. Northern Dynasty secured agreements to purchase in 2001 and, by 2005, had acquired 100% of the Pebble deposit and 153 square miles of associated resource lands. Today Northern Dynasty owns a land package totaling 186 square miles.

Between 2001 and 2004, Northern Dynasty expanded the known mineral resource at Pebble from 1 to more than 4 billion tonnes. It also initiated planning for a large-scale, open pit mine and began comprehensive engineering, environmental and socioeconomic studies.

In late 2005, an area of significantly higher-grade mineralization was discovered at Pebble. Engineering and other technical studies continued while the company set out to fully delineate the extent of high-grade mineralization before developing a proposed development plan.

Today the mineral deposit at Pebble totals 5.94 billion tonnes measured and indicated resource containing 55 billion lb copper, 66.9 million oz gold and 3.3 billion lb molybdenum; and 4.84 billion tonnes inferred resource containing 25.6 billion lb copper, 40.4 million oz gold and 2.3 billion lb molybdenum, as well as quantities of silver, palladium and rhenium that also occur in the deposit. It is expected to support either an open pit mine, a high-volume underground mine or a combination of both.

In July 2007, Northern Dynasty and Anglo American U.S. (Pebble) LLC entered into a 50:50 partnership to develop a modern, long-life mine at Pebble. Under the terms of the agreement, Anglo American will fund $1.425 to $1.5 billion of project costs to retain its 50% interest, after which expenditures will be split 50:50.

The Pebble Partnership is fully staffed in Anchorage, Alaska with a prominent U.S. leadership team, and is on track to develop, permit, build and operate a modern, long-life mine at Pebble.

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