Pebble mine court proceedings back on track after shutdown, with new schedule

Northern Dynasty Minerals, owner of Pebble project, has an updated schedule for its federal summary judgment case over the Pebble copper mine project veto. Court proceedings have resumed after the 43-day US government shutdown halted all filing deadlines.

For much of the year, progress in the Pebble litigation moved through a sequence of executive administration leadership transitions, agency reviews, and procedural holds tied to the change in administrations from Biden to Trump. Activity rose and slowed in step with those transitions, as the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers worked through internal assessments related to the 2023 veto of the proposed Southwest Alaska mine.

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, EPA and the Corps sought a 90-day abeyance to conduct a full review of the Pebble record. Northern Dynasty did not object. In May, the agencies sought an additional 30-day extension as several Department of Justice positions were still unfilled and federal reviewers.

When the May extension expired, the case remained effectively paused until July, when EPA completed its internal review and held discussions with Pebble Limited Partnership on aspects of the 2023 preemptive veto by the Biden Administration, which disallowed Pebble to even apply for permits.

The case then moved forward until the 43-day federal shutdown halted all deadlines in October. With the shutdown now concluded, the court has issued a revised schedule that accounts for the pause in federal operations.

Under the timeline, the Department of Justice must file its response brief by Feb. 16. The plaintiffs’ reply brief filed by the State of Alaska, Pebble Limited Partnership, Iliamna Natives Ltd., and Alaska Peninsula Corp. is due April 15.

“We appreciate the challenge faced by the DOJ lawyers during the shutdown; however, we believe this to be an excessive extension of time for a case attempting to support an illegal Obama/Biden-era veto,” Ron Thiessen, Northern Dynasty President and CEO stated. “It continues to be our preferred outcome for the ongoing discussions to result in government officials withdrawing the illegal veto, which would allow us to terminate the summary judgement process. In the meantime, we continue a parallel track of both discussions and court action in the interest of keeping timelines as tight as possible.”