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In the Bristol Bay Basin, 320 kilometers southwest of Anchorage, the area where the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver mine would be built. Northern Dynasty will submit its request for an appeal of the US Army Corps of Engineers' cemented carbide rods (USACE's) negative record of decision (RoD) for its Alaska's Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project in January.

The company stated that it would argue that USACE's request for mitigation against Pebble violated Alaska's policies and precedents, and that the agency's rejection of the mining company's compensation mitigation plan (CMP) was procedurally and substantially invalid.

In a media statement, Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen said: "Although we believe the USACE's 'significant degradation' finding to be contrary to law and unsupported by the administrative record as established by the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), we set out in good faith to meet their demand for in-kind and in-watershed mitigation at a very high and unprecedented ratio for Alaska, and after a tremendous amount of professional effort and investment, we did it."

"For the USACE to summarily reject a CMP that is directly responsive to its requirements, to do it on the basis of what we believe to be largely minor and arbitrary deficiencies and without giving the proponent an opportunity to respond to those alleged deficiencies or otherwise amend its application is, we believe, without precedent in the long history of responsible resource development in Alaska," Thiessen said.

The proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project will directly or indirectly affect 3,650 acres of wetlands and other water bodies and 185 miles of streams. To compensate for these effects, the Pebble Partnership proposes to create 112,445 acres of Koktuli Reserve on state-owned land in the Koktuli watershed, thereby protecting 27,886 acres of wetland, 1,174 acres of other waters and 814 miles (1,967 acres) of streams. According to the company, It is located near the Pebble Project.

"We expended considerable financial and Cemented Tungsten Carbide professional resources delivering exactly what the US Army Corps asked us to deliver on compensatory mitigation," Thiessen said. Pebble will be the largest mine in North America, including 6.5 billion tonnes in the measured and indicated categories containing 57 billion pounds of copper and 71 million ounces of gold, 3.4 billion pounds of molybdenum and 345 million silver ounces,

However, the licensing process of the Northern Dynasty for the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project has been full of controversy and delays. Pebble has faced environmental opposition from the beginning because the mine will be located near the world's largest commercial production area of sockeye salmon.