Nevada Copper (NCU.TO) is getting ready for a big day today, as yesterday evening the so-called land change bill passed the US House of Representatives with all votes having been cast in favor of the bill. Senator Heller congratulated congressman Mark Amodei with accomplishing the approval of the bill which was first introduced in 2013 and consists of several initiatives to revive the economy in Nevada. The next step for the bill will be to get the approval of the US Senate, but after seeing how the House voted unanimously to approve the bill, we don’t expect any issues in the Senate as well. In his press statement, Senator Heller said he wants to push the bill through senate and get it signed by president Obama ‘before the end of the 113th Congress’.
So why is this important for Nevada Copper? By swapping the land in Lyon County, the company no longer has to get federal environmental approval and can now instead receive the final approval from the lower-level state government. As the First Phase of Pumpkin Hollow was approved rather fast, we don’t expect the Second Phase of Pumpkin Hollow to take a lot of time. The company is officially guiding to finish the permitting process ‘early in 2015’.
With the permitting being fast-tracked, Nevada Copper is now also in the position to start up discussions with potential strategic partners for the second phase of this project which will have an average copper production of 220 million pounds per year in the first five years of the mine life. As the initial capex is quite high at $927M, Nevada Copper will very likely attract a strategic partner to help finance the construction of the project. These are exciting times for Nevada Copper and the only thing on the ‘to do’-list is to find the remaining millions to bring the first phase of Pumpkin Hollow into production.
> Click here to read the press release
Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Nevada Copper. Nevada Copper is a sponsor of the website. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
