The Pebble Partnership, a 50-50 partnership between Anglo American plc and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., Feb. 1 released an updated resource estimate for the Pebble deposit in Southwest Alaska, increasing the resources in the measured and indicated category by 17 percent over the previous estimate released in Dec. 2008.
The copper resource at Pebble has grown by 12 percent to 80.6 billion pounds; gold has increased by 14 percent to 107.4 million ounces, and the molybdenum resource has swelled by 16 percent to 5.6 billion pounds.
The new resource estimate is based on 509 holes drilled at Pebble, including 37 new holes drilled since mid-2008 which have verified the grade and distribution of mineralization in the higher-grade eastern portion of the deposit.
At a 0.30 percent copper-equivalent cutoff, the Pebble deposit contains 5.94 billion metric tons of measured and indicated mineral resources grading 0.78 percent CuEq; which comes to 55 billion pounds of copper, 67 million ounces of gold and 3.3 billion pounds of molybdenum. The deposit contains an additional 4.84 billion metric tons of inferred mineral resources grading 0.53 percent CuEq; or 25.6 billion pounds of copper, 40.4 million ounces of gold and 2.3 billion pounds of molybdenum.
"The quantity, grade and continuity of mineralization at Pebble, as well as the fact that more than 55 percent of the resource is now classified in measured and indicated categories, demonstrate the project's potential to be one of the great metal producers of the 21st century," said Northern Dynasty President and CEO Ron Thiessen.
The Pebble Partnership said it will continue working toward concluding a prefeasibility study for the project. The company also plans to continue exploration at the Pebble deposit this summer. The scope of work for 2010 will be announced upon approval by the partnership’s board of directors.
