Reserves and Resources
In 1992 Pebble was estimated to contain 3 million tonnes of copper and 11 million ounces of gold in 1 billion tonnes of ore.
In 2004 Northern Dynasty had outlined, through additional drilling, over 4 billion tonnes of ore, none of it in the yet undiscovered "Pebble East."
Estimates in February 2008 indicated: Pebble West contains (at a copper-equivalent cut-off of 0.30%) Measured and Indicated Resources of 18.8 billion pounds of copper, 31.3 million ounces of gold, and 265 million pounds of molybdenum, contained within 3026 million tonnes of ore and Inferred Resources of 5.9 billion pounds of copper, 9.1 million ounces of gold, and 993 million pounds of molybdenum contained within 1130 million tonnes of ore.; Pebble East contains (at a copper-equivalent cut-off of 0.6%) Inferred resources of 49 billion pounds of copper, 45 million ounces of gold, and 2.8 billion pounds of molybdenum contained within 3860 million tonnes of ore.
In February 2010 an updated resource estimate was released reporting that, based on a total of 509 drillholes and at a 0.30% copper equivalent cutoff (CuEQ), the Pebble deposit mineral resources (East and West combined) comprise: • 5.94 billion tonnes of ore as Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources grading 0.78% CuEQ, containing 55 billion pounds of copper, 67 million ounces of gold and 3.3 billion pounds of molybdenum; and • 4.84 billion tonnes of ore as Inferred Mineral Resources grading 0.53% CuEQ, containing 25.6 billion pounds of copper, 40.4 million ounces of gold and 2.3 billion pounds of molybdenum.
By dollar value, slightly more than half of the value of Pebble is from copper, with the remainder split roughly equally between gold and molybdenum. Byproducts of silver, rhenium, and palladium metals will also be recovered.
Pebble is estimated to be the second-largest ore deposit of its type in the world (in terms of the value of the contained metal), slightly smaller than Indonesia's Grasberg Mine, which has more metal contained in a smaller amount of ore than Pebble .
Read more about this topic: Pebble Mine
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