By Colin McClelland, Bloomberg News March 8, 2011

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., developing an Alaskan mine with Anglo American Plc, said it could be a takeover target for "major" diversified-mining companies or Asian metals traders in the next two years.

"I think it could happen anytime later this year or next year," Chief Executive Officer Ron Thiessen said today in an interview. "I could see it being either one of the diversified majors singly or a partnership of a major mining company and perhaps an Asian metals trading-slash-smelting company, like a Mitsubishi, Mitsui or Sumitomo, or even one of the Chinese groups."

A preliminary assessment of the copper, gold and molybdenum Pebble project shows the mine could have a 6.2-year payback time after an initial capital investment of $4.7 billion, Thiessen said on the sidelines of the four-day Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto.

"This is the kind of project that is generally developed by a consortium of major mining companies," Thiessen said. "It's almost unheard of for a project of this scale for a junior to be sitting in there."

Anglo American, part owner of the world's biggest platinum and diamond producers, said Feb. 25 it's too soon to evaluate the copper mine before a "prefeasibility study," and comments by its Vancouver-based partner on the mine's economics were premature.

Thiessen said the prefeasibility study on the mine, which may be capable of producing 680 million pounds of copper a year, will be completed in 2012 for a cost of $325 million after an original estimate of $125 million in 2008.