NovaCopper Adds Inferred Resources At Bornite Project

VANCOUVER, BC - NovaCopper Inc. reported initial National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) compliant mineral resource estimate for the South Reef zone of the Bornite Project for its Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) located in the highly prospective Ambler mining district in northwestern Alaska. At the base case 1.0% copper cutoff grade, the South Reef zone is estimated to contain an Inferred Resource of 43.1 million tonnes at 2.54% copper or 2.4 billion pounds of contained copper. This is the second resource estimate for the Bornite Project. On July 18, 2012, the Company released an initial resource estimate for the Ruby Creek zone of the Bornite Project announcing an Indicated Mineral Resource of 6.8M tonnes at 1.19% Cu (179 million pounds of copper) and an Inferred Resource of 47.7M tonnes at 0.84% Cu (883 million pounds of copper) at a 0.5% Cu cut-off grade. The South Reef zone is located approximately 500 metres southeast of the Ruby Creek zone. An updated National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report for the Bornite Project will be filed later this month.

Highlights: At the base case 1.0% copper cutoff grade, the South Reef zone is estimated to contain an Inferred Resource of 43.1 million tonnes at 2.54% copper or 2.4 billion lbs of contained copper; At an elevated 2.0% copper cutoff grade, the South Reef zone is estimated to contain an Inferred Resource of 25.0 million tonnes at 3.44% copper or 1.9 billion lbs of contained copper; The Bornite Project is now estimated to contain 179 million lbs of copper (6.8 million tonnes grading 1.19% copper) in the Indicated category and 3.3 billion lbs of copper (90.8 million tonnes grading 1.64% copper) in the Inferred category.

The above resources are in addition to the earlier announced Indicated Resource of 1.7 billion lbs of copper (19.4 million tonnes grading 4.05% copper) and Inferred Resource of 873 million lbs of copper (11.4 million tonnes grading 3.47% copper) as well as other metals contained in the Company''s Arctic Project.

"I am very pleased with the initial resource estimate for the South Reef zone. In our first season of drilling at South Reef we have defined 2.4 billion pounds of high-grade copper and the mineralized system is wide open for expansion. With this latest resource estimate we have increased the Company''s total Indicated and Inferred Resources at the Bornite and Arctic Projects, both within the UKMP, by 66% to 1.9 and 4.2 billion pounds of copper, respectively. We are well underway to achieving our objective of defining 10 billion pounds of high-grade copper in the Upper Kobuk, which has the potential to evolve into one of the world''s major copper mining districts," said Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, NovaCopper''s President and Chief Executive Officer.

"What is particularly exciting about the South Reef zone at Bornite is that significant tonnes of very high-grade copper exist at elevated copper cutoff grades. These very high-grade zones could potentially be starter areas for an underground mining operation. More work will be necessary to demonstrate this continuity at the Measured and Indicated Resource categories, but our predictive geological model would suggest that the very high-grade zones are likely to demonstrate continuity. Furthermore, management is looking forward to doing more drilling in 2013 to capitalize on the resource expansion potential of the South Reef zone."