By Juliet Eilperin, Updated: February 28 at 10:48 am

The Environmental Protection Agency will announce Friday it will examine whether to block a massive gold and copper mine proposed in Alaska, according to people familiar with the issue -- a major win for environmentalists, native tribes and commercial fishing companies that have been seeking to kill the project for more than three years.

While the announcement does not mean the Obama administration has made a final decision to prohibit Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., a Canadian-based firm, from starting construction on the Pebble Mine project, it will delay it for months and make it much harder for the controversial project to move ahead at all.

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