Copper and gold project developer Northern Dynasty Minerals has asked a federal court in Alaska to move forward with a summary judgment schedule in its lawsuit over the veto of its Pebble copper project during the Biden Administration.

The Vancouver-based company and its US subsidiary, Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP), are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) use of its Clean Water Act authority to block development of the copper/gold/molybdenum resource in south-west Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

“While discussions with the EPA have taken place, we have not reached a settlement. As such, today we asked the court to set a briefing schedule for summary judgment motions, as we now believe that will be the quickest, most direct avenue to get the veto removed,” said Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen on Thursday.

“We will continue to work with the relevant government agencies to resolve this issue. Meanwhile we are confident that the court will agree with our assessment that the issuance of the veto by the Biden Administration was unlawful.”

In court filings earlier this month, the EPA acknowledged it was reviewing a new submission from the PLP that could influence a potential settlement. The agency and PLP had requested a two-week extension to ongoing abeyance, with a status update due July 17. Northern Dynasty said the talks represented the "fastest path forward for withdrawal of the veto”.

“This [Trump] Administration has been emphatic about its desire for the US to be self-sufficient in critical metals like copper and to be the global AI capital,” said Thiessen. “For this to happen, the US must develop secure domestic supplies of important metals such as copper and the withdrawal of this egregious and unsubstantiated veto of the largest undeveloped copper project in the world would go a long way towards achieving this goal.”

The controversial Pebble project has long been caught in a tug-of-war between strategic resource development and environmental protection. While the deposit is believed to be one of the largest untapped sources of copper and other metals in the world, its proximity to the ecologically sensitive Bristol Bay watershed has drawn opposition from fishing groups, environmentalists, and Alaska Native communities.

Still, Northern Dynasty has maintained that the project can be developed responsibly and will be critical to US efforts to secure domestic sources of metals needed for energy transition and technological competitiveness.