However the CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals' (TSX: NDM) subsidiary said it was clear sworn opponents of the project were "alarmed at the steady progress Pebble continues to make" towards a final federal environmental impact statement and Record of Decision from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Northern Dynasty describes Pebble as the most significant undeveloped copper and gold resource in the world, with its optimised proposal outlining a 20-year openpit mine producing an average annual 318 million pounds of copper, 362,000 ounces of gold, 1.8Moz of silver and 14Mlb of molybdenum.
The project has faced hurdles in the form of strong opposition from environmentalists and commercial fishermen and an effective veto in 2014 under then-US president Barack Obama's administration, with Pebble's sixth potential project partner, First Quantum Minerals, bowing out of an option agreement last year.
"With the publication of an overwhelmingly positive draft EIS in February, the formal withdrawal of the Obama administration's unprecedented 404(c) proposed determination in July, and our inexorable progress toward a Final EIS and ROD in the first half of 2020, people are starting to understand that Pebble is a project of merit," Collier said.
"One of my fellow panelists today, former EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran, has called Pebble's permit application the ‘camel's nose under the tent', which I suppose means that he believes that Pebble plans on shoehorning in a larger project despite the fact that we have scaled back the footprint in the mine plan currently before the Corps of Engineers."
He said the argument showed a "level of desperation", with opponents forced to argue the planned project must be different to what was proposed, or in other words were struggling to find problems with what was currently before the Corps.
He said criticisms had been put on the table and would be addressed and he was confident the EIS and ROD would be delivered next year and would "withstand any subsequent legal challenge".
Northern Dynasty has made a series of significant placements this year as its prospects have improved.
It raised US$11.5 million at 64c per share in March, then a further $2.4 million at 64c the same month, $5 million at 41c in July and another $11.5 million in a bought-deal offering at 75c per share in August.
Its Toronto-listed shares hit C$1.47 in February but fell as low as 56c in June.
They closed down 2.6% yesterday to 74c, capitalising it at $281.1 million (US$215.3 million).
