Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Dec. 21 announced a nice holiday surprise as it closed US$15 million in convertible notes and roughly C$3.4 million in non-brokered private placement offerings.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the status of Pebble, Kopernik Global Investors LLC out of Florida has purchased convertible notes (basically a loan that gives the option to be paid out as shares) toward the sum of US$15 million, whereas Northern Dynasty also issued and sold 8.56 million units of its company at a price of C40 cents per unit, totaling C$3.4 million (US$2.6 million).

"These funds will be used by the company to continue to advance the Pebble project in a responsible manner for the benefit of all Alaskans, especially those in southwest Alaska closest to the Pebble project," said Northern Dynasty President and CEO Ron Thiessen. "This way all Alaskans can benefit from both the valuable fisheries and world-class mineral resource assets the State has to offer; not one of the other."

While the air still hangs thick with suspension as the State of Alaska waits to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will hear its case arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency breached the state's constitutional rights when it emplaced restrictions on permits for developing a mine at the world-class Pebble project, North Dynasty has not let its guard down despite the apparent line being permanently drawn by the federal agency.

With billions of pounds of copper, hundreds of thousands of kilograms of rhenium, hundreds of millions of pounds of molybdenum, and millions of ounces of gold and silver, this multi-billion-dollar project that is becoming more and more critical to a clean energy transition, is becoming more and more difficult to sweep aside.

With the latest round of funding, Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Partnership can continue to pursue what they see as an important domestic source of metals critical to the energy transition, as well as new foundation for Alaska's economy.