The main investor in a controversial proposed gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay has pulled out of the project, leaving its fate in doubt.
Northern Dynasty Minerals said Friday that it failed to finalize a financing agreement with First Quantum Minerals. Together the two companies were developing the Pebble Mine project as a collective known as the Pebble Limited Partnership.
The two companies had reached a tentative agreement in December in which First Quantum Minerals would provide $37.5 million upfront and $150 million over the next three years in exchange for half the mine’s stake.
Northern Dynasty said in a news release Friday that it had “terminated” the First Quantum agreement “in accordance with its terms.”
The mine, which contains significant metal deposits, including gold and copper, is going through a permitting process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But its ability to secure the permit is precarious after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt in January issued a surprise announcement that the proposed mine would harm the area’s natural resources. Pruitt’s decision reversed a prior determination he made, where he had begun a process of undoing the Obama administration’s attempt to block the mine.
Pruitt’s new decision did not cancel the mine outright, but it left in place the Obama administration’s block of the project until the EPA could solicit further comments. But Pruitt said the “permit application must clear a high bar, because EPA believes the risk to Bristol Bay may be unacceptable.”
Pruitt said he made the decision after consulting with Alaska natives and tribal governments. The EPA also received about a million public comments, most of them negative.
Northern Dynasty had vowed to continue with the permit process, despite Pruitt’s action.
The Obama administration denied the mine a permit for years because of the impact it could have on water quality and the number of salmon in the area that indigenous populations rely upon.
