Senior VP Engineering & Project Director
Stephen Hodgson and VP Permitting
James Fueg join Pebble team
VANCOUVER, Oct. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Northern Dynasty
Minerals Ltd. (TSX: NDM; NYSE MKT: NAK) ("Northern Dynasty" or the
"Company") announced today that the Pebble Limited Partnership
("Pebble Partnership" or "PLP") has filled two senior technical
positions to lead engineering design and regulatory permitting for
southwest Alaska's Pebble
Project.
Senior Vice President of Engineering and Project Director
Stephen Hodgson (P. Eng.) will lead
Pebble's engineering and project development team, with
responsibility for all aspects of project design, engineering and
financial studies and regulatory compliance. He will be supported
by Vice President of Permitting James
Fueg (PMP, CPG), who assumes responsibility for all aspects
of the project's regulatory permitting team and process, including
management of environmental and socioeconomic studies, liaison with
federal and state agencies and active management of Pebble's
forthcoming Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") process under
the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA").
"I couldn't be more pleased with the technical leadership we
have assembled to finalize our permit applications and lead Pebble
into and through the NEPA and EIS permitting process beginning
later this year," said Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier. "In Stephen and James, not only do
we gain decades of experience working with the world's leading
mining companies on many of the most significant projects around
the globe, we benefit from their long-standing experience in
Alaska.
"We now have a dedicated leadership team in place in
Anchorage that is not only
committed to the financial and permitting success of the Pebble
Project, but one that shares Alaskans' interests in ensuring our
project protects clean water, healthy fisheries and traditional
ways of life, while making a profound positive contribution to the
people and economies of the region and the state."
Stephen Hodgson is a professional
engineer with more than 40 years of experience in consulting,
project management, feasibility-level design and implementation,
and mine operations at some of the most significant mineral
development projects in the world – including the Pine Point zinc
mine in northern Canada, the Red
Dog zinc mine in Alaska, Antamina
in Peru, and the Oyu Tolgoi
project in Mongolia. Hodgson has led the engineering group at
Northern Dynasty and Hunter Dickinson Inc. since 2005, has played a
central role on the engineering team for Pebble for more than a
decade, and was part of the Cominco team that evaluated the Pebble
deposit in the early 1990s.
James Fueg is a geologist and a
geophysicist with more than 25 years of experience in mineral
exploration and resource development, including more than 20 years
working in Alaska. He was most
recently seconded from Barrick Gold Corporation to serve as
Technical Services Manager for the Donlin Gold Project in western
Alaska, where he played a
leadership role managing the EIS and NEPA permitting process for a
project expected to receive a final Record of Decision in 2018.
"We have a great deal of confidence in both the technical
capabilities of the project's leadership team and their commitment
to the project and to the State of
Alaska," NDM President & CEO Ron
Thiessen said. "These are major pieces of the first-class
team we are assembling to lead this world-class project into
permitting."
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.