LEST WE FORGET WHAT IS MORE LIKELY THE TRUTH: Discovery drilling had stopped but as you see below, when it starts again it could progress to even more of all the metals.As long as the rivers aren't polluted, this remote area must be developed! The true value could be astounding! AND COULD BE IS ALLOWED JUST AS COULD BE HARMING THE FISH IS ALLOWED BY THE OPPOSITION.
Resource
In 2008, Pebble was estimated to be the second-largest ore deposit of its type in the world in terms of the value of the contained metal, slightly smaller than Indonesia's Grasberg Mine, which contains more metal in a smaller amount of ore than Pebble.[18] Estimates have grown throughout the history of the project.
In February 2010, a resource estimate, based on a total of 509 drillholes and at a 0.3% copper equivalent cutoff (CuEQ), reported the combined Pebble deposit mineral resources of East and West comprise:
- 5.94 billion tonnes of ore as "measured and indicated mineral resources" (=proven, see Mineral resource classification) grading 0.78% CuEQ, containing 55 billion pounds of copper, 67 million ounces of gold and 3.3 billion pounds of molybdenum; and
- 4.84 billion tonnes of ore as "inferred mineral resources" (=estimated) grading 0.53% CuEQ, containing 25.6 billion pounds of copper, 40.4 million ounces of gold and 2.3 billion pounds of molybdenum.[19]
The 2014 resource estimate includes 6.44 billion tonnes in the measured and indicated categories containing 57 billion lb copper, 70 million oz gold, 3.4 billion lb molybdenum and 344 million oz silver; and 4.46 billion tonnes in the inferred category, containing 24.5 billion lb copper, 37 million oz gold, 2.2 billion lb molybdenum and 170 million oz silver. Quantities of palladium and rhenium also occur in the deposit.[20]
By dollar value, slightly more than half of the value is from copper, with the remainder split roughly equally between gold and molybdenum. Byproducts of silver, rhenium, and palladium metals would also be recovered.
Full disclosure, this time this is from wikipedia but it gets the message across again.