The companies trying to develop the controversial Pebble copper and gold project in Southwest Alaska said Wednesday they will spend roughly $59 million this year to finish the work needed to apply for mine permits next year.

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John Shively

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The Pebble Partnership's budget this year is less than half of last year's $140 million. It means less drilling and fewer workers, but company officials said that is mainly due to a natural progression of the project, which contains hundreds of billions of dollars worth of copper and gold. The company has already finished most of its expensive exploration drilling campaign.

Pebble officials said another factor considered in the spending cut is the global economy: Early last year metal prices were sky-high and a severe recession had not yet taken hold.

"The level of investment we're seeing for Pebble this year, in a period of global economic downturn, demonstrates the commitment of the Pebble Partnership to move this project forward in a timely way," said John Shively, chief executive of the Pebble Partnership, in a statement.

The Pebble project is controversial because of its size and location. The massive deposit, which could be developed as an underground and open-pit mine, is in the headwaters of two of the five rivers that feed Bristol Bay's massive sockeye salmon fisheries. If built, Pebble would be one of the largest mines of its type in the world, potentially employing 1,000 workers for roughly 50 years, according to mining officials.

But some villages downstream of Pebble are opposed to building a mine. The project's other opponents included fishermen, hunters, Native organizations, sport lodge owners and environmentalists.

In Iliamna, a village near the project, however, many are depending on Pebble for work.

"They've cut back; we knew that was coming," said Lisa Reimers, chief of Iliamna Development Corp., a Native-owned contracting company that provides payroll, housekeeping and catering services to the Pebble Partnership. Last year, her company employed about 80 people to help with Pebble.

The village is facing dire straits this year due to high fuel costs. As long as Pebble continues to provide some work, Reimers said, "It's good. Otherwise we have nothing at all."

The project's foes said Wednesday they would have rather seen the project mothballed for a while to allow them more time to fight it.

A delay in the project would have been nice, said Terry Hoefferle, who runs Nunamta Aulukestai, a coalition of Bristol Bay Native village corporations that oppose Pebble.

But "given the work that they've done, they want to see this through to permitting," Hoefferle said.

The Pebble Partnership is composed of Anglo American, the global mining giant, and Northern Dynasty Minerals, a Canadian junior mining company.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

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