Proposed Pebble gold mine faces long, difficult journey

Mining in Alaska isn't as easy as it used to be. Old mines of Alaska lore like the fabled mobile coal washing plantKennecott copper mine near McCarthy did not face a maze of federal and state regulation. There was no Environmental Protection Agency back in the early 1900s, when Kennecott Minerals Co. mined and milled some 4 million tons of copper ore worth more than $4.5 billion in 2011 dollars.

There were no state agencies to please. No permits to apply for. No Department of Natural Resources or Department of Environmental Conservation. No state, in fact. Pre-statehood gold mining didn't involve Alaska Native corporations with massive landholdings, across which access rights would need to be negotiated. When it comes to getting a big mining project going in Alaska, things are infinitely more complicated in the early 21st century. Just ask the folks at Pebble Partnership. A mining partnership between London-based Anglo American and Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals, the Pebble project is focused on trillions of dollars of gold, copper and molybdenum underneath the...