(Reuters) – Canada’s Northern Dynasty Minerals said on Monday the Alaska district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has extended a deadline to comment on future plans regarding the Pebble copper mine to June 29.
U.S.-listed shares rose 1.6% in premarket trading, after the second extension of the deadline.
The Pacific Ocean Division of USACE in April had remanded the permit decision for the Pebble project back to the Alaska district to re-evaluate the permitting process for the mine.
Northern Dynasty Minerals, which owns the project through its unit Pebble Partnership, had maintained the position that the process of the final record decision for the project was not properly followed.
The project has been through a roller coaster of regulations for the past 15 years. Former U.S. President Barack Obama opposed the project, and his successor Donald Trump ultimately did, too, after deciding it was too risky.
In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to take steps to block the proposed project by preventing Northern Dynasty from storing mine waste in the state’s vast watershed.
(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
