Does anybody knowIf this will effect free Gold or is it near where free Gold is??
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Alaska's Superior Court ruled in favor of Pebble Ltd. Partnership in the latest case brought by activists who charged the state of Alaska with the unconstitutional permitting of mineral exploration and charged Pebble with causing environmental harm to an area that is home to wildlife and a large Alaskan gold and copper deposit, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NAK, NDM.T) said.
The lawsuit was filed in July 2009 on behalf of Nunamta Aulukestai, an organization that opposes the development of the Pebble project.
The Pebble project, which is located in southwestern Alaska, is one of the world's largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits and has faced protests from activists who allege it could harm an important spawning habitat for wild sockeye salmon and harm communities around Bristol Bay that depend on fishing.
The Pebble project is jointly owned in equal measure by U.K.-listed Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) and Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) owns a 19.16% stake in Northern Dynasty.
Nunamta Aulukestai alleged that the Alaska Department of Natural Resources had violated the state constitution by granting exploration and temporary water use permits to the Pebble Partnership, and that Pebble's exploration activities had caused harm to vegetation, water, fish and wildlife.
The court rejected each of the allegations made by Nunamta Aulukestai, and ruled that no evidence of environmental harm was presented, Northern Dynasty said.
"The totally unsupported allegations of Nunamta Aulukestai in this case are illustrative of the rhetoric that anti-Pebble activists have used to alarm local people about the potential effects of the Pebble project, a project that has not yet even entered the permitting process," Ron Thiessen, president and chief executive of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., said in a statement.
He noted the Pebble Project will likely face further legal, legislative and process challenges in the future. At the moment, a ballot measure sponsored by anti-Pebble activists has been put before local community voters that would block large-scale development projects such as Pebble.
"If the measure is passed, we're confident that the rule of law in Alaska will prevail yet again, and the proposed legislation will be struck down by the courts as being unconstitutional," Thiessen said.
Anglo American has so far invested about $350 million in the project and said it would commit $1.4 billion to take it through various stages of development, but only if a mine could be designed in accordance with Alaska's stringent environmental standards and to the benefit of the local community.
The project could produce annually as much as 350,000 tons of copper, 12,000 tons of molybdenum and 600,000 ounces of gold. A pre-feasibility study for the project is expected to be completed in 2012.
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Read more: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/10/05/alaska-court-rules-in-favor-pebble-project-exploration-rights/print#ixzz1ZwUQFlNg
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