VANCOUVER, Oct 27, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") (NAK) reports that core drilling and other study activities at the Pebble Limited Partnership's ("PLP", "Pebble Partnership" or the "Partnership") project site in southwest Alaska continue to advance. The Pebble Project remains on track to complete a Prefeasibility Study in the second half of 2009. "The Pebble Partnership continues to make sizable investments across a broad range of technical, environmental and social disciplines to move the project forward efficiently toward the completion of a proposed development plan and the onset of permitting," said Northern Dynasty President & CEO Ron Thiessen. "The tremendous amount of work undertaken this year by geological and geotechnical drilling crews, environmental and socioeconomic consultants, as well as the site personnel that support them, has moved us that much closer to reaching our program goals." To the end of September 2008, PLP crews had completed 141,000 feet of drilling in 215 holes. This includes 109,800 feet of drilling in 24 holes to: increase the information base about known mineralization in the Pebble East deposit; continue to delineate the Pebble East deposit; and provide detailed geotechnical information for mine planning purposes. Crews also completed 31,160 feet of drilling in 191 dedicated environmental, geotechnical and metallurgical holes. Drilling at Pebble will continue through December 2008. Following a 6 to 8-week hiatus, site activities will begin again in February 2009. Thiessen said the Pebble Partnership, with the assistance of co-owners Northern Dynasty and Anglo American plc, has assembled a world-class mine development team to design, permit, construct and operate a modern, long-life mine at Pebble. A dedicated team of approximately 20 engineers and technical specialists (many seconded from Anglo American), as well as 58 engineering firms and other cons
