known undeveloped copper ore body in the world, measured by either the amount of contained metal or the amount of ore. A report released by Northern Dynasty in 2011 predicted profits for mine owners from a large-scale open-pit mine at Pebble, given appropriate assumptions about construction costs ($4.7 billion), scale (200,000 tons per day), lifetime (45 years), metal prices over that lifetime (2011 prices) and the mine design plan. The study assumed a slurry pipeline would deliver ore concentrate from the mine to a new port on Cook Inlet, and that trucks will haul ore concentrates to Cook Inlet. The plan expected the mine to return the initial capital investment in 3.2 years, employ over a thousand people for the first 25 years and provide a lifetime 23.2% pretax internal rate of return. The expected pretax cash flow was approximately $2 billion per year for much of the mine life and significantly more during the later years. The report states that 58% of the ore resource will remain at year 45. Permits Northern Dynasty has applied for water rights permits to Upper Talarik Creek and the Koktuli River for use in mining. Altogether, Northern Dynasty has applied for rights to about of ground and surface water per year, about four times the annual throughput of drinking-quality water at the Anchorage Waste and Wastewater Utility. In April 2017 Northern Dynasty reported that it had received notice of approval of a Miscellaneous Land Use Permit from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for ongoing activities at Pebble. Studies Site-specific baseline data and scientific studies of potential environmental and social effects have been and are being conducted by the project operators and their consultants. These studies address water quality and other concerns. Among these are: quantification of Acid mine drainage - the chemical stability and weathering products of the tailings (waste rock, which would be wet-stacked without dewatering) generated by the mine, as well as of the newly exposed and blast-fractured rocks within the proposed mine. seismic risks to the impoundment systems (earthen tailings dams) designed to contain the tailings and intended to control their chemical behavior in perpetuity. the effects of road and bridge construction on fish habitat. Public interest in the project has also resulted in outside, and opposing, interests publishing scientific reviews of available data and comparisons with other projects. These include reports or summaries on the following: acid