Here is the news! Awesome!NEWS RELEASE
TSX:NCU
NEVADA COPPER REPORTS ROBUST ECONOMICRESULTS
December 1, 2009 - Nevada Copper Corp. (TSX:NCU)("Nevada Copper")is pleased to announce it has completed a National Instrument 43-101Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for its 100% owned Pumpkin Hollow IOGCProperty in Nevada which incorporates a High Grade Case. This is an update tothe PEA results published on March 17, 2008.
In March, 2008 Nevada Copper completed a PEAdescribing an integrated 60,000 tons per day open pit- underground operationresulting in US$552 million at $1.75/lb copper price to US$1.7 billion at$3.00/lb copper price at an 8% discount rate. Capital costs under theintegrated open pit and underground operation were estimated at US$780 million,including contingencies and working capital.
The High Grade Case incorporates the recent increaseto Pumpkin Hollow’s resource as a result of drilling completed in 2008 and 2009and optimization studies focused on developing a production profile that wouldresult in largely reduced capital costs and a project which would be resilient tolower copper prices while still allowing for the transition to the largeintegrated open pit-underground operation.
Capital costs have been reduced to approximately 25%of that required for a larger 60,000 tons per day integrated openpit-underground operation. More importantly, the High Grade Case does notcompromise the integrity of the large open pit project envisioned in the 2008PEA, and will allow for transition to the large integrated open pit undergroundoperation on a staged basis.
The updated PEA was prepared by the mineral resourceand mining division of Tetra Tech MM Inc., an industry leading internationalengineering firm.
Financial results for the High Grade Case at a rangeof copper prices on a pre-tax basis are as follows:
|
(In Millions of US Dollars)
|
|
Copper Price ($/lb)
|
Base Case
|
Alternative Case
|
|
$2.00
|
$2.50
|
$3.00
|
$2.00
|
$2.50
|
$3.00
|
|
Undiscounted
|
$499
|
$999
|
$1,500
|
$410
|
$796
|
$1,197
|
|
NPV @ 8 %
|
$211
|
$498
|
$784
|
$183
|
$414
|
$654
|
|
IRR(includes contingency)
|
25.3%
|
44%
|
60.4%
|
25.5%
|
42%
|
56.6%
|
|
Capital (includes contingency & working capital)
|
$192
|
$192
|
$192
|
$167
|
$167
|
$167
|
|
Payback (years)
|
3.6
|
2.4
|
1.9
|
3.7
|
2.6
|
2.2
|
Joe Kircher, Vice President and COO commented, “Theseexceptional financial results for the High Grade Case at Pumpkin Hollow,showcase the impressive build-out options available for the Project. ThePumpkin Hollow deposits provide a unique opportunity within North America,capable of sustaining a stand-alone high-grade operation without compromisingthe opportunity to expand the project into a large scale integrated openpit-underground mining facility. The High Grade Project provides an attractiverate of return on investment, and requires a capital investment of roughly onequarter of that needed for the large 60,000 ton per day integrated openpit-underground operation. ”
Base Case Project Metrics:
Includes a small high grade starter pit in Years 1 to 3.
Life of Mine:14 years
Copper EquivalentGrade: 1.88% copper/lb
OreMined: 34 million tons
CopperSold: 1,064 million lbs.
MineThroughput:7,500 tons per day Years 1 to 14
Total CashCost:$1.06 per lb. of copper
Alternative Case Project Metrics
Life of Mine:12 years
Copper EquivalentGrade: 1.95% copper/lb
OreMined: 26 million tons
CopperSold: 853 million lbs.
MineThroughput:2,500 to 7,500 tons per day in Year 4, then 7,500 tons per day thereafter
Total CashCost:$1.03 per lb. of copper
In both cases the nominal concentrator throughput is7,500 tons per day. In the Alternative case the project and concentrator isramped up from 2,500 tons per day to 7,500 tons per day over a three yearperiod. Production is derived from both the E2 and East Deposits.Underground access is from a decline with a conveyor for ore haulage.Underground mining methods use a combination of cut and fill and bulk long holestoping methods.
In the Base Case, which includes a starter pit, asmall pit in the South Deposit supplements the difference between what isproduced from underground and concentrator throughput during the first threeyears of the mine’s life, allowing for 7,500 tons per day processed starting inYear 1. Due to the short lived life of the open pit a contractor performsthe open pit mining. The south starter pit generates 2.8 million tons ofore at an average grade of 1.29% cu/lb. at a 5.8 to 1 overburden rate.Included in the overburden and stockpiled separately is a low grade componenttotaling 5.7 million tons at an average grade of 0.41% cu/lb. In Years 13and 14 of the starter pit case, high grade in the North Deposit is extractedusing underground mining methods.
Both the Base Case and Alternative Case are 100%contained on patented mine claims resulting in the benefit of a more responsivepermitting process. Capital and operating costs are based on first quarter 2008prices.
Results from both this study and the 2008 PEA willform a solid basis for the Pre-Feasibility currently in progress at PumpkinHollow and scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2010.
The PEA incorporates the Resource Update NationalInstrument 43-101 Technical Report filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) on August 25, 2009.
According to National Instrument 43-101 guidelines, aPEA is considered preliminary in nature and includes the use of inferredmineral resources which are considered too speculative geologically to applyeconomic considerations that would enable them to be categorized as mineralreserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not demonstratedeconomic viability. Thus, there is no certainty that the production profileconcluded in the PEA will be realized. Actual results may vary.
The updated National Instrument 43-101 PEA report onthe Pumpkin Hollow property will be available within 45 days on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Nevada Copper is not aware of anyenvironmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketingor other issues which may materially affect its estimate of mineral resources.
QualifiedPerson
The mineral estimation work was performed by or underthe direction of John Rozelle, PG, Tetra Tech’s Mineral Resource DivisionPrincipal Geologist an independent Qualified Person as set forth by CanadianNational Instrument 43-101. The Pumpkin Hollow project is under the supervisionof Gregory French, CPG #10708, a Qualified Person as defined in CanadianNational Instrument 43-101, who is responsible for the preparation of thetechnical information in this news release. All assaying and whole rockgeochemistry is processed at the American Assay Laboratories (AAL) in Reno,Nevada. Samples are delivered from the project core logging facility to AAL byNevada Copper or AAL personnel. A Quality Assurance and Quality Control AssayProtocol have been implemented whereby blanks and standards are inserted intothe assay stream and check samples are sent to Chemex-Reno andInspectorate-Reno laboratories.
Nevada Copper has45.1 million common shares outstanding and is well funded with Cdn.$12 millionin cash. For additional information about Nevada Copper please visit ourwebsite at www.nevadacopper.com.