The updated NI 43-101-compliant resource includes: at a copper cut-off of 0.5 percent, the potentially open-pittable portion of the Bornite project contains indicated resources of 14.1 million metric tons grading 1.08 percent (334 million pounds) copper and inferred resources of 109.6 million metric tons grading 0.94 percent (2.3 billion pounds) copper; and the deeper potentially underground minable portion of Bornite contains inferred resources of 55.6 million metric tons grading 2.8 percent (3.4 billion pounds) copper.

The 334 million pounds of contained copper reporting to indicated resources is an increase of 87 percent over the 179 million tons in the previous estimate and the 5.7 billion pounds of contained copper reporting to the inferred category is 73 percent higher than the previous 3.3 billion pounds.

“We are extremely pleased with the Bornite resource expansion. We have added more high quality copper resources, at a grade of approximately 1 percent copper, for a potential open-pit mine scenario. Also, at a grade of approximately 2.8 percent copper, we have the potential for an underground mine scenario,” said NovaCopper President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse.

The new resource estimate incorporates results from 216 drill holes including 17 holes totaling 8,142 meters drilled by NovaCopper in 2013, as well new assays from 42 historical Kennecott drill holes comprising 14,457 meters with partial or no assays.

The 2013 drilling focused on: expanding shallow potentially open-pit exploitable resources in the Lower Reef area in the Ruby Creek Zone; and extending deeper potentially underground minable resource to the north, in the Lower Reef area of both the Ruby Creek and South Reef Zones. Drilling targeting shallow mineralization totaled 4,684 meters in 12 holes and deeper drilling targeting underground mineralization totaled 3,458 meters in five holes.

In addition to the drilling, NovaCopper conducted an extensive re-sampling and assay program of historical drilling at Bornite. These holes were previously drilled and only selectively sampled by Kennecott within the Ruby Creek zone of the Bornite deposit. The objectives of the re-assay program were to confirm and conduct a quality assurance/quality control program on the historical sample results; and to identify additional lower-grade (0.2-0.5 percent copper) shallow material, which was not previously sampled.

Of the 33 historic drill holes sampled, 26 holes had intervals of copper greater than 0.5 percent copper, and 29 holes contained mineralization greater than 0.2 percent copper.

“In less than three years, our exploration team has increased six-fold the scale of the Bornite deposit. When combined with our high-grade (5.9 percent copper-equivalent) potentially open-pit resource at Arctic, we have nearly achieved our initial objective of defining approximately 10 billion pounds of copper equivalent resources in the district,” Van Nieuwenhuyse said.

NovaCopper said the Lower Reef mineralization is open over a 1,000-meter wide front along the north end of the deposit. The company plans to resume drilling during the second or third quarter of 2013 with the goal of expanding the resource to the north and northeast. Additional re-assaying of partially sampled Kennecott era drilling is also anticipated.