By Tim Bradner

A report released Oct. 29 by opponents to the proposed Pebble copper/gold project in Southwest Alaska and aimed at financial investment groups claims significant legal and political risks would jeopardize the project.

A spokesman for the companies that want to develop the mine discounted the report and says the project is still in its preliminary stages, too early for anyone to draw conclusions about its viability.

Earthworks, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation organization that does work on mining issues, authored the report. It was distributed to investment groups in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, said Bonnie Gestring, the group's coordinator for the U.S. Northwest.

The move indicates a new tactic from mining opposition groups: aim at financial investors to raise concerns about environmental issues on a particular project.

Pebble, owned equally by Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals, is still in an advanced exploration stage with feasibility studies underway.

The Pebble deposit lies in Southwest Alaska, about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. It is one of the world's largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, and also contains significant quantities of molybdenum, according to investor information on the project provided by Northern Dynasty.

A coalition of fishing and Alaska Native groups in the Bristol Bay region hope to halt the project, arguing that the mine poses risks to watersheds that support salmon spawning streams and one of the world's largest commercial salmon fisheries.

The report says that lawsuits and other obstacles would make it difficult for Anglo American and Northern Dynasty to obtain permits by 2012 and to have the mine in production by 2016, the current timeline.

"No other mining project in North America comes close to the scale, the complexity and the technological challenges that face the Pebble mine," David Chambers, manager of the Center for Science and Public Participation in Montana, said in a written release announcing the report. The center provides technical assistance to public interest groups on issues related to mining and water quality.

Chambers and Stuart Levit, a mine reclamation specialist who work at the center, reviewed the Earthworks report.

"The risks identified in this report should be of particular interest to lenders," Jonas Kron, an analyst with Trillium Asset Management Corp., said in the press release.

Trillium manages about $900 million in assets and leans toward socially responsible investment strategies, Gestring said.

Gestring said Earthworks paid for the report, which cost about $10,000, from its own membership and foundation funds.

Anglo American discounted the report in its own written statement.

"This was prepared by individuals and groups well known for their opposition to the Pebble Project and it is disingenuous to describe it as an investor advisory," said Paul Henry, Anglo American's chief operating officer for Alaska. "As is well understood, Pebble is still an exploration project and no mine development plan has yet been proposed. The assumptions and conclusions of the report are therefore premature and lack credibility."

Alaska state officials also said claims in the report are overstated. For example, an assertion that the mine would obtain water rights across a wide area that would exclude other uses is unfounded, said Ed Fogels, the state large mine permit manager in the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

"Water rights? Where do they get that? We have to leave enough water for fish. We're not going to let a mining company dewater streams in the area," Fogels said.

The report also describes facilities for the mine that is outdated information. A possible development scenario for a large mine at Pebble was submitted to the state several years ago by Northern Dynasty, then the operating company at Pebble, when an application for water rights was submitted.

Fogels said the company is still working on engineering studies to determine how a mine at Pebble would actually work.

John Shively, president of the Pebble Partnership, the company formed by Anglo American and Northern Dynasty to develop and operate a mine, said it is not even known now if the mine is economically viable.

Tim Bradner can be reached at

tim.bradner@alaskajournal.com.