Northern Dynasty shares surge 32 per cent

PERMIT APPROVAL

been the target of a short-seller campaign, said late Tuesday its U.S. subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership has received notice of approval for a miscellaneous land use permit from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

Its stock closed up 32.4 per cent at $2.42 apiece on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Shares had been on a tear, rising nearly 300 per cent since the November election of U.S. President Donald Trump on speculation that his administration would loosen environmental regulations that have held back its Pebble coppergold project.

“The Alaska Department of Natural Resources and Based in Anchorage, Alaska, Northern Dynasty’s Pebble Project is seeking to develop a globally significant deposit of copper, gold and molybdenum into a modern mining operation. other state agencies have had an active oversight presence at the Pebble Project site for more than a decade, and have confirmed that Pebble is a well-managed exploration project,” said Tom Collier, chief executive of the Pebble Partnership.

The partnership will begin to prepare the project for permitting under the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act.

Environmentalists, indigenous people and fisherman have fought the mine’s development and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted the project in 2014. Northern Dynasty maintains it could build the project without harming one of the world’s most valuable salmon habitats.

The company had been in mediation with the EPA and thought it was close to a resolution last August. There were still some issues outstanding when Trump won the U.S. presidential election, and proceeded to upend the environmental agency, appointing Scott Pruitt, who is favourable to easing regulations on drillers and miners, as its head.

Northern Dynasty announced in March that it filed a joint motion with the EPA to extend a stay of proceedings in the ongoing legal saga in the interest of resolving the matter directly rather than through mediation.

Wednesday’s jump was its biggest since a short-seller’s report called the project “worthless” in February.

Kerrisdale Capital Management said in a report that the mine would require such a large capital investment that it would never be profitable. It also accused the company of hiding a negative project assessment conducted by former partners.

Northern Dynasty has called the claims unfounded and erroneous.