If a massive deposit of copper was found under the giant redwoods, would the American public allow the extinction of the redwoods for copper? Plastic and ceramics can replace copper. Gold is basically a useless metal with little practical value. There are even more rare earth metals than gold with much higher value and price appreciation; most of these come from China as ancillary products from copper smelting. The prolonged Pebble project 'planning' provides a convenient strategy for recapturing the money invested in Pebble; hence stock trading in NAK persists by design. That's my opinion.