VANCOUVER, March 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Northern Dynasty
Minerals Ltd. (TSX: NDM; NYSE MKT: NAK) ("Northern Dynasty" or the
"Company") announces that its 100%-owned subsidiary Pebble Limited
Partnership ("Pebble Partnership" or "PLP") has selected HDR
Alaska, Inc. ("HDR") to serve as lead regulatory and permitting
consultant for the Pebble Project, with the goal of preparing
necessary documentation to initiate federal and state permitting
under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and National
Environmental Policy Act by the end of the year, in
anticipation of a successful outcome of the Company's
multi-dimensional strategy to address the US Environmental
Protection Agency's ("EPA") pre-emptive regulatory action under
Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act.
HDR has provided environmental and technical consulting services
to Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Partnership since 2004, with a
specific focus on wetlands, water, aquatic habitat and fish studies
as presented in the $150 million,
27,000-page Pebble Environmental Baseline Document published
in 2012. In its current role, HDR will continue to undertake select
environmental baseline field studies and analyses at Pebble, but
will also provide strategic regulatory guidance to the Pebble
Partnership as it finalizes the engineering design, environmental
planning and documentation required to file a CWA 404 permit
application with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
"HDR is one of the many respected Alaska-based consulting firms that have
provided professional services to the Pebble Project for well over
a decade, so they're already intimately familiar with the unique
challenges and opportunities presented by our project," said
Tom Collier, CEO of the Pebble
Partnership. "As a firm, HDR not only has an enviable track record
for helping permit some of Alaska's most prominent mines, energy and
infrastructure development projects, their senior personnel are
also former federal and state regulators, with a deep understanding
of regulatory processes and requirements for permitting success in
Alaska and the United States."
While HDR will play a leading role on the team PLP is assembling
to permit the Pebble Project, the Pebble Partnership intends to
retain additional engineering, environmental and regulatory
consultants and experts to support the project's 2017 work program
and NEPA permitting requirements over the next several years.
"We expect to be making further announcements in the weeks and
months ahead about our 2017 field program and the work required to
prepare the project to initiate permitting," Collier said. "We're
very pleased the project is moving forward, and that we're in a
position to begin to re-hire local residents and Alaska firms that have contributed so much to
Pebble's advancements in years past."
About HDR Inc.
HDR Inc. is a global leader in consulting based in Omaha, NE, with 10,000 professionals in more
than 225 offices around the world specializing in engineering,
architecture, environmental and construction services. For the past
37 years, the staff of HDR Alaska has provided engineering and
environmental services to help Alaska-based clients successfully conceive,
design, permit and build resource development and infrastructure
projects.
About Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.
Northern Dynasty is a mineral exploration and development
company based in Vancouver,
Canada. Northern Dynasty's principal asset is the Pebble
Project in southwest Alaska, USA,
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.