Benzinga | Feb 26, 2021 05:19AM EST

Northern Dynasty Shares Rise 61% Premarket; Co Announced Late Tuesday that US Army Corps of Engineers Accepted Pebble Partnership Request for Appeal

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSX:NDM)(NYSE:NAK) ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") reports the US Army Corps of Engineers ("USACE") has accepted Pebble Limited Partnership's request to initiate an administrative appeal process with respect to southwest Alaska's Pebble Project and a negative Record of Decision' ("ROD") issued by its Alaska District in November 2020.

On January 19, 2021, Northern Dynasty's 100%-owned, US-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership (the "Pebble Partnership") submitted a Request for Appeal ("RFA") to the USACE's Pacific Ocean Division Engineer headquartered in Hawaii. In a letter dated February 24, the USACE confirmed the Pebble Partnership's RFA is "complete and meets the criteria for appeal."

The USACE Alaska District published a final Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") for the proposed copper-gold-molybdenum-silver-rhenium mine in July 2020, finding that Pebble would "not have measurable effects" on fish populations or fisheries in southwest Alaska. Despite this, the USACE published a ROD on November 25, 2020 denying Pebble a key permit under the Clean Water Act on the grounds that its compensatory mitigation plan' ("CMP") is non-compliant and the project is not in the public interest.'

Northern Dynasty believes that key aspects of the USACE's ROD and permitting decision - including its significant degradation' finding, its public interest review' findings and its perfunctory rejection of Pebble's CMP - are contrary to law, unprecedented in Alaska and fundamentally unsupported by the administrative record, including the Pebble Project EIS.

A full version of the Pebble Partnership's RFA can be viewed at: https://northerndynastyminerals.com/site/assets/files/4888/plp-request-for-appeal-poa-2017-00271-jan-19-2021.pdf

USACE guidelines indicate the administrative appeal process should conclude within 90 days, although it may be extended under certain circumstances.