Posted 05/30/2016
View original post on the Cordova Times website here.
by - Margaret Bauman
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. announced May 26 offerings of up to $15 million in units of the company, to raise money to fight proposed environmental restrictions on development of a massive mineral deposit in the Bristol Bay region.
Company officials said that proceeds of the offering will be used to fund "the company's multi-dimensional strategy to address the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed pre-emptive regulatory action under the Clean Water Act, and to prepare the Pebble project to initiate federal and state permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act, costs to keep the Pebble project in good standing, costs to advance a potential partner(s) transaction and for working capital and general corporate purposes."
The offering, to be conducted by Global Securities Corp. and Industrial Alliance Securities Inc., will consist of 31,111,111 units at a price of 45 cents per unit, the company said.
In addition, the company said it planned to offer 2,222,222 units directly to U.S. "accredited investors" in a direct offering for additional proceeds of up to $1 million.
The Pebble project is the principal asset of Northern Dynasty, a mineral exploration and development firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is a massive copper, gold and molybdenum deposit near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home of the world's largest sockeye salmon run.
Northern Dynasty, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is a subsidiary of Hunter Dickenson, a diversified global mining group also based in that Canadian city.
The Pebble Limited Partnership, which represents the company in Alaska, maintains that the mine can be developed and operated in harmony with the fishery, which provides thousands of jobs in the commercial and sport fishing industry. Mine opponents, who include thousands of commercial, sport and subsistence harvesters, and environmental entities, as well as numerous business firms, are concerned that such a large-scale mine would have dramatically adverse impact on the fishery.
That was also the conclusion of the EPA, which has proposed to initiate a process to project the Bristol Bay watershed. Development of this mine would result in one of the largest open pit copper mines in the world and would threaten one of the world's most productive salmon fisheries, the EPA concluded, after hearing extensive testimony from the public, the mining industry, environmental entities and independent scientists.
The EPA has authority under Section 404 (c) of the Clean Water Act to protect valuable areas from harmful discharges.
More about how the EPA came to this decision is online at www.epa.gov
More on Northern Dynasty's perspective on why and how the company proposes to build the mine is at www.northerndynasty.com
You can reach Margaret Bauman with comments and suggestions at mbauman@thecordovatimes.com
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