part in the region's cultural heritage. There are more than 30 Alaskan native tribes in the region that depend on salmon to support their traditional subsistence ways of life, in addition to other inhabitants and tourists in the area. History Discovery In 1987 Cominco Alaska Exploration (CAE) (which subsequently became Teck Resources) collected mineralized surface samples at the Pebble site from color anomalies visible from aircraft. Geologist Phil St. George was credited with the discovery. He led early exploration efforts, drilling out the first half billion tons of the deposit. The first two exploration holes were drilled in 1988; in 1989 twelve more drill holes, soil sampling, and geophysical surveys indicated that the Pebble West occurrence (originally named Pebble Beach) was part of a large copper porphyry system. CAE continued drilling and other work through 1992, with a second drill campaign in 1997, with the resource doubled from 500M short tons to 1B short tons. In 2001, Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd. optioned the property from Teck Cominco, the successor to CAE's parent company. Northern Dynasty Minerals began exploration in 2002, which continued through 2013. In 2005, Northern Dynasty discovered the Pebble East deposit and acquired 100% ownership of the Pebble mining claims. Project funding In 2008, $140 million was budgeted and approximately of additional drilling was completed. In 2009, $70 million was budgeted, to complete a preliminary feasibility study, or "prefeasibility" study, and to prepare the project for permitting. In 2010, $73 million was budgeted towards the pre-feasibility report, environmental studies, and various administrative and community-relations work. Applications for development and operations permits were not planned until after 2010. For 2011, $91 million was budgeted to complete the pre-feasibility study, leading to permit applications in 2012. Environmental and engineering studies including of drilling to decide on mine design and a complete environmental baseline. Project particulars Project ownership The land is owned by the State of Alaska. Pebble Mines Corp. holds mineral rights for of the area, an area that includes the Pebble deposits, as well as other, less explored, mineral deposits. A sequence of mining companies and partnerships have owned the Alaska mining claims at and around Pebble since the initial claim staking by Cominco in 1987. The Pebble Limited Partnership was once one of the largest multinational mining corporations made up of South African company Anglo American, along with Northern Dynasty Minerals, a junior mining company headquartered in Canada.