Pebble to submit mitigation plan ‘in weeks’ as USACE says mine cannot be permitted

The US subsidiary of Toronto-listed Northern Dynasty said on Monday that it had started work on a plan to meet the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) expectations for wetlands mitigation and that it would be ready to submit a comprehensive management plan (CMP) “within weeks”.

This comes as the USACE has announced that the controversial copper/gold mine project near Bristol Bay, in south-west Alaska, cannot be permitted as currently proposed.

The USACE stated that the project could have substantial environmental impacts within the Bristol Bay watershed and that it lacked adequate compensatory mitigation.

The Pebble Partnership said that the letter it had received from the USACE was routine and that it did not ask for a delay or pause in the permitting process.