February 2, 2023 — After a decades-long controversy, the Biden administration took a rare step this week to stop the giant Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska. But observers of the project say the fight could live on in court for years to come.
In separate statements, mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership and the state of Alaska on Tuesday threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency after it issued a preemptive veto of the project using its special power under the Clean Water Act.
Conservation and tribal groups and other entities opposed to the mine have said they’re equally ready to fight back to support the agency’s decision, if it must defend itself in court. They’re also looking for additional protections for the Bristol Bay fishery, beyond the EPA action, through potential legislation in Congress.
The EPA action means the project can’t be permitted for construction, even if Pebble wins its ongoing administrative appeal of a 2020 decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the company’s permit application.
The decision blocks a project that would have been among the largest open-pit mines in the world. The mine would have unlocked billions of dollars in mineral wealth. But the agency says scientific and technical records dating back more than two decades show the mine would unacceptably harm the world’s largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery and about two dozen Alaska Native villages in the region.
Less certain is what will happen to the project in the court battle likely to follow, though people familiar with past vetoes by the EPA — made only three times in the last 30 years — suggest that Pebble has little hope of winning in court.
The EPA’s decision also would seem to dim financial prospects for the project, though a financial analyst who tracks stocks tied to Pebble said major mining companies will always have the Pebble deposit on their radars because of its massive potential value.
The project is located on state land 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near headwaters of the Bristol Bay fishery.
But Pebble Limited, led by small Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals, has shown remarkable resilience for many years. The project has survived the loss of major mining partners and resistance from the presidential administrations of Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Donald Trump and now Democrat Joe Biden.
Pebble is “like a zombie. They never die,” said Dan Cheyette, a vice president with the Bristol Bay Native Corp., the region’s Alaska Native corporation and a mine opponent. “We’re the persistent ones who will pursue every avenue we have to stop them.”