Partnership to spend $140 million in 2008 on Alaska mine

Two mining companies have set a budget of more than $140 million this year for work on a huge copper and gold mine planned for southwest Alaska.

The board for the Pebble Partnership, which is a collaboration between Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American PLC, outlined in a prepared statement Monday just how it intends to spend the money to further the Pebble Mine.

The 2008 program got under way in February, according to the partnership.

More than $61 million will be spent on the drilling program to test for the full extent of the Pebble East deposit. The companies plan about 157,000 feet of exploratory drilling. Six rigs are currently deployed, with over 22,500 feet drilled so far this year.

More than $30 million will be spent on engineering. Another nearly $25 million will go toward an environmental study program. And nearly $15 million will be spent on a public education program to increase support for the mine.

Northern Dynasty holds a 50 percent interest in the mine project through a wholly-owned subsidiary. Anglo American holds the other half through a wholly-owned subsidiary. Anglo American has agreed to invest $1.4 billion in the project.

The mine is located near the headwaters of Bristol Bay about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. It is a huge deposit, perhaps the world's largest, and is situated near the most productive sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

Recent estimates of copper and gold reserves at Pebble put the value of the minerals at between $345 billion and $500 billion.

According to the Pebble Partnership, about $220 million has been invested in the project since 2002.