Extensive Baseline studies
Extensive Baseline studies - the basis of the design
Some $150 million was invested over 8-10 years to compile and assess the baseline conditions in the region surrounding the Pebble Project and to provide a comprehensive understanding of the environmental and socio-economic conditions in the region.
This is possibly the largest such expenditure on these types of studies ever made on any greenfield mining project.
The Company and its expert advisors meticulously considered the results to incorporate these data as the basis of the Proposed Project design. An important example of this is the extensive precipitation and stream flow data collected at the site. Weather data were collected at a number of Project sites and Pebble partnered with the US Geological Survey to measure stream flow in the three streams which drain the mine site. These data were collected over 11 years and correlated with weather data from adjacent communities, enabling development of a 76-year synthetic precipitation record. This record was instrumental in ensuring the waste and water management systems were designed to operate under the full range of expected precipitation conditions.
