Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is a junior copper exploration company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, operating primarily in USA. The company's portfolio consists of 1 development project. Key assets include Pebble. The company's business model is centered on the exploration and advancement of a single, large-scale polymetallic mineral project toward feasibility and permitting. Operations are conducted through a wholly-owned limited partnership structure, which manages all exploration, environmental assessment, and engineering activities. The proposed operational plan contemplates conventional open-pit mining methods, utilizing a drill, blast, truck, and shovel approach. Processing capabilities are designed around a conventional flotation process plant to produce multiple metal concentrates, with potential for a future secondary recovery circuit. A key aspect of the operational approach involves extensive, multi-year environmental baseline studies and technical engineering work to support a comprehensive project design. The enterprise's primary focus is on navigating a complex regulatory and permitting environment to demonstrate that a permitted mine can be economically developed. This model relies entirely on raising external capital to fund pre-development activities, as the organization does not generate operating revenue.

Strategic priorities are centered on overturning negative regulatory decisions through multifaceted legal challenges. The primary legal effort seeks to vacate a federal agency's final determination and associated permit denials, arguing the actions were arbitrary and based on flawed conclusions that contradicted the project's final environmental impact statement. A secondary legal action asserts that these regulatory decisions constitute an unconstitutional taking of property. Concurrently, the organization continues efforts to secure a strategic partner to fund and advance the project's development, a core component of its long-term business plan. The capital strategy involves leveraging alternative financing mechanisms, including royalty agreements and convertible notes, to fund ongoing legal expenses and corporate requirements. To mitigate high initial capital expenditures, the development model contemplates third-party financing for major infrastructure components, such as power plants and transportation corridors, in exchange for long-term lease or toll payments.

Executive leadership is directed by a President and CEO with over 25 years of experience in financing and developing mineral exploration companies. The Chairman of the Board is an economic geologist with over 46 years of industry experience and was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2012. The board of directors is composed of 9 members, with governance oversight managed through 4 specialized committees: Audit and Risk, Compensation, Nominating and Governance, and Sustainability. A unique governance feature is a corporate services agreement with Hunter Dickinson Services Inc. (HDSI), an external management firm that provides geological, corporate development, administrative, and key management services, including the CEO and CFO. This arrangement provides access to a broad team of technical and administrative professionals. One director is a principal at a firm that is a significant convertible note holder, creating direct alignment with a key financial stakeholder. The Audit and Risk Committee chair is a Chartered Professional Accountant and designated financial expert.

Environmental stewardship is demonstrated through a comprehensive baseline data collection program initiated in 2004, which characterized the physical, chemical, and biological environments to support impact assessments and mitigation planning. The proposed project design incorporates significant environmental safeguards, including a development footprint less than half the size of earlier concepts and the consolidation of major infrastructure into a single drainage. Tailings management plans feature conservative designs with enhanced buttresses and flatter slope angles, including a separate, fully-lined facility for potentially acid-generating material, which would be returned to the open pit at closure. A proposed community benefits program includes a performance dividend structured as a 3% net profits royalty interest, designed to distribute guaranteed minimum annual payments to adult residents of local communities, beginning at the start of construction. The board maintains direct oversight through a dedicated Sustainability Committee.

The company operates through a wholly-owned limited partnership, the Pebble Limited Partnership, which holds the project's assets. This partnership was originally formed in 2007 as a joint venture with an affiliate of Anglo American, which contributed approximately US$573 million before its withdrawal in 2013. A subsequent 2017 framework agreement with First Quantum Minerals for a potential partnership was terminated in 2018 after an initial payment was made. The core mineral claims were acquired from a subsidiary of Teck Resources, which retains a net profits interest royalty on a portion of the property designated as Exploration Lands. Recent financing includes a royalty agreement executed in 2022 with an investor for a percentage of future precious metals production and the issuance of US$15 million in convertible notes in 2023 to funds managed by Kopernik Global Investors, LLC, a principal of which was appointed to the board of directors in 2023.