PDAC award latest for Rebagliatis

Vancouver — When Ross Rebagliati won the first Olympic Gold medal for snowboarding in Nagano back in 1998, he was merely showing a competitive streak that appears to run in his family.

As if to prove the point, his 63-year-old father Mark Rebagliati has won an award for his role in the discovery of a huge porphyry copper-gold deposit in southern Alaska.

One of the largest of its kind in the world, the Pebble East deposit has already attracted the interest of industry heavyweight Rio Tinto (RTP-N), which has taken a 19.8% stake in the project’s owner Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM-V, NAK-X).

In recognition of this feat, the Hunter Dickinson Group geologist received the Thayer Lindsley International Discovery award at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto, on March 5th.

It is the second time in less than a decade that Rebagliati has been recognized by his mining industry peers, a sign perhaps that he and his son have something in common.

“Ross always had the attitude that you go into a race to win,” says the veteran mine finder, who was named Prospector of the Year by the PDAC for 1997.

Rebagliati says he is just as competitive as his son, but in a different way.

“I always want to go out and find orebodies rather than just work on geology,” he says.

Pebble East is not the only discovery that Rebagliati has been involved in during a career that dates back to 1964, when he took his first helicopter ride and began prospecting in northwestern B.C.’s Stikine region.

A graduate of the Michigan Technological University’s geological engineering program, he has been involved in a long list of B.C. discoveries, including Kemess South, Mount Milligan, and Southern Star.

But Pebble East is the one that has given him the most satisfaction.

“It’s like a kid’s dream,” he says, referring to the sheer size of a project that is being compared to the world’s largest porphyry copper-gold mines, including Grasberg in Indonesia.

At a 0.6% copper-equivalent cutoff, the estimated inferred mineral resource in Pebble East stands at 3.4 billion tonnes, grading 1% copper equivalent, containing 42.6 billion lbs. copper, 39.6 million oz. gold and 2.7 billion lbs. molybdenum.

It is adjacent to the Pebble West deposit, which contains a measured and indicated resource of 3 billion tonnes grading 0.28% copper, 0.32 gram gold, and 0.015% molybdenum, using a 0.3% copper-equivalent cutoff.

That does not include an additional inferred resource of 1.1 billion tonnes grading 0.24% copper, 0.3 gram gold and 0.14% molybdenum at a 0.3% copper-equivalent cutoff.

“It’s an amazing deposit,” says Ed Thompson, chairman of the PDAC Awards Committee.

While its potential value has come to light only in recent years, the idea that Pebble may have been underappreciated was one that had been tossed around within the Hunter Dickinson camp, long before it became available five years ago.

“It was on our radar screen for quite some time,” says Rebagliati, who oversees the work of 14 geologists, located in Alaska, B.C., and China.

Hunter Dickinson company Northern Dynasty acquired the exploration rights to ground that hosts the original Pebble West deposit from Teck Cominco (TCK.B-T, TCK-N).

At that time, Pebble West was considered a prize in itself. But it was the potential of the surrounding 250-sq.-km land package that attracted Northern Dynasty.

It committed itself to about 60,000 ft. of diamond drilling, hoping that it could find higher-grade ore that would make the project economic and pay for mining infrastructure.

When subsequent discoveries didn’t contain the necessary tonnage to make the project economic, Northern Dynasty elected to re- examine Teck Cominco’s Pebble West drill core. It was that decision that led to the discovery of Pebble East in late 2005.

Certain that Pebble East actually coalesces with its eastern neighbour, Northern Dynasty will spend about $40 million this year to confirm that theory and define the limits of the new deposit.

Due to its size and location near Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay area, the project is attracting the attention of wealthy opponents. They include Alaskan money manager and sport fishing lodge operator Robert Gillam, who is participating in a campaign to stop the project.

Gail Phillips, a former speaker with the Alaska House of Representatives, has taken a different view, saying that Pebble should be allowed to apply for mining permits, a process that will permit citizens of Alaska to decide whether it should be mined.

Rebagliati remains undeterred by what is proving to be a high-profile debate.

“Today, any significant mining operation in the world is going to be under scrutiny from environment and other special interest groups,” Rebagliati says. “It’s something that has to be dealt with in an open and progressive way.”

A far greater challenge, he says, is finding experienced drill crews as well as the helicopter portable rigs with the capacity to drill deep holes. It is equipment that is needed to limit the company’s footprint until it secures the necessary mining permits.

The company had four rigs working the property in February, and hopes to add another four by the end of this month.