Rio Tinto on Pebble: Go underground first

Posted by Elizabeth Bluemink

Posted: March 31, 2008 - 11:02 am

The Alaska Journal of Commerce posted a story on Sunday that sheds some light on Rio Tinto's opinions about Pebble.

London-based Rio Tinto is one of the world's biggest mining companies. It owns nearly 20 percent of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., which has a 50 percent stake in the Pebble project. Rio's CEO, Tom Albanese, received his mining education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and for a time, managed the Greens Creek mine near Juneau. He spoke two weeks ago at the Arctic International Mining Symposium in Fairbanks.

Here's some of Albanese's quotes about Pebble from the Journal article:

"In our view, we think the underground option is more attractive. It's best to start off in grade; high grade covers a lot of bills. ... That means it will technically be more challenging, so that means more time to get additional drilling completed, several more years to get to a (construction) decision. So that puts it barely in prefeasibility. We think that's the best way to start.

He said lengthening the project timeline is not a bad idea.

"That could decompress the debate and allow for a more reasonable stakeholder engagement," he said. "That's the best thing, technically and for engagement."

About Pebble's opponents, he said:

"(They are) the most sophisticated, well-funded and well-managed groups I've seen anywhere in the world," Albanese said. "But they are about to take a local issue and turn it into a statewide issue. That will knock a lot of their constituency out from under them.

He also suggested that the clean water ballot initiatives in Alaska could backfire for the mining industry's opponents.

"People will begin to ask, 'Why are we attacking such a big, important sector of our economy?' That position could lose them their constituency."

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