NEWS RELEASE

TSX: NCU

NEVADA COPPER COMMENCES PRE-FEASIBILITY AND

25,000 METER DRILLING PROGRAM

December 8, 2009 - Nevada Copper Corp. (TSX:NCU) ("Nevada Copper") is pleased to announce commencement of a Pre-Feasibility Study at its 100% owned Pumpkin Hollow Copper Development Property located in Nevada.  The Pre-Feasibility Study includes approximately 25,000 meter resource drilling program and is scheduled for completion in the 2nd quarter of 2010.  Snowden Mining Industry Consultants, Inc. (?Snowden?) an international, industry leading engineering firm has been engaged by Nevada Copper to prepare the National Instrument 43-101 compliant report.

Joe Kircher, Vice President and COO of Nevada Copper commented, ?Initiation of the Pre-Feasibility Study at Pumpkin Hollow marks a major milestone for the Project as we move towards a commercial production decision.  We are pleased to be teaming up with Snowden?s proven expertise to define a preferred development option for this world class copper resource.?

Drilling Program:

Nevada Copper began mobilizing drill rigs the first week of November and currently has four (4) drills rigs including three core rigs operating around the clock at Pumpkin Hollow. The drilling program is designed to convert 80% of the 2009 Inferred resource within the mineable boundaries into a Measured and Indicated category for Pre-Feasibility mine planning and reserve calculation. As reported in July, 2009 the Mineral resource at Pumpkin Hollow at a 0.2% copper cutoff stood at 9.3 billion pounds, consisting of:

PUMPKIN HOLLOW RESOURCES

Drilling will include in-fill and step-out holes designed to both upgrade the current resource classifications and to test for further resource expansion down dip and along strike in areas where the deposits remain open.  Initial drilling will focus on the high grade eastern deposits.

This drilling program is budgeted at approximately Cdn.$6 million and consists of approximately 25,000 meters to be drilled during the next 4-6 months. Tetra Tech MM Inc., an industry leading international engineering firm, has been retained to prepare an updated resource estimate following completion of the drill program. Results from the drilling will be released as they become available.

Pre-Feasibility: Snowden has assembled a world-class team of major mining industry consultants, with extensive industry experience to assist Nevada Copper with developing the Pre-Feasibility Study.  Their team and respective specialties include:

Snowden: Project Management, Geology, Open pit and Underground Mine Optimization, Metallurgy, Geotechnical and Financials

Scare-Davey: Processing and Infrastructure

Knight Piesold: Environmental, Tailings, Permitting and Socio-Economic

Nevada Copper?s previous National Instrument 43-101 compliant economic studies at Pumpkin Hollow have identified two optimal development scenarios. First, a large integrated open pit and underground mining complex feeding a single 60,000 tpd concentrator producing up to 125,000 tons of copper per year over a 24 year mine life. Secondly, and highlighting the Project?s high grade nature, a development profile was designed exploiting ore, averaging 1.9% copper per ton, and envisions a 7,500 tons per day operation, primarily underground, producing approximately 40,000 tons of copper per year over a 14 year mine life.  The latter scenario preserves the integrity of the larger scale integrated open pit-underground operation but requires only 25% of the capital. Both options demonstrate extremely robust financial results.

Initial Pre-Feasibility efforts will focus on a trade-off study evaluating a range of mine plans consisting of various combinations of open pit and underground operations with different ore and waste production rates, access configurations, material handling strategies, mining methods and cut-off strategies.  Financial and technical metrics derived from the trade-off study will then be assessed with the preferred development profile(s) selected for completion of the detailed Pre-Feasibility design.  Completion of the Pre-Feasibility is scheduled for the 2nd quarter of 2010, with commencement of the Definitive Feasibility Study immediately thereafter.

About Nevada Copper

Nevada Copper has 45.1 million shares outstanding and is well funded with Cdn.$12 million in cash.

Nevada Copper is an emerging copper company, responsibly developing its advanced stage Pumpkin Hollow copper-gold-silver-iron property into Nevada?s next copper mine. Concurrent with a resource delineation drilling program, metallurgical, geotechnical, hydrological, and environmental baseline data are being collected and processed for inclusion in the Pre-Feasibility Study.

To date over 530 drill holes containing in excess of 223,000 meters of drilling have been incorporated into the resource database. In July 2009, Nevada Copper updated its National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate. At a 0.2% copper cutoff grade, the measured and indicated copper resource is 5.6 billion pounds of copper, contained in 488 million tons grading 0.58% copper and 983 thousand ounces of gold and 34 million ounces of silver. An inferred copper resource of 3.7 billion pounds of copper is contained in 441 million tons grading 0.42% copper and 468 thousand ounces of gold and 21 million ounces of silver. Additionally, there is also an open-pit measured and indicated resource of 78 million tons of iron and inferred resource of 51 million tons of iron at a 20% cutoff.

Within these large resources is a significant high grade copper resource in the East deposits. Using a 0.75% copper cutoff grade, the measured and indicated resources contain 1.4 billion pounds of copper in  49 million tons of material grading 1.47% copper and, in addition, the inferred resource contains 496 million  pounds of copper within 20 million tons grading 1.22% copper. 

Additionally, there are open pit resources on the property in the West deposits.  At a 0.20% cutoff the West deposits contain a Measured and Indicated resource of 306 million tons at 0.51% copper and an Inferred resource of 230 million at 0.42% copper for a total of 5 billion pounds of contained copper.

The Pumpkin Hollow project is under the supervision of Gregory French, CPG #10708, a Qualified Person as defined in Canadian National Instrument 43-101, who is responsible for the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

For additional information about Nevada Copper please visit our website at www.nevadacopper.com.

NEVADA COPPER CORP.

Giulio T. Bonifacio
President & CEO

For further information call:                                      

Eugene Toffolo, Corporate Communications        or         Joe Kircher, Vice President, COO                     

Phone:    604-683-8266                                                  Phone:  775-463-3510                                       

Tollfree: 1-877-648-8266

Email: etoffolo@nevadacopper.com

CAUTIONARY NOTE

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed ?forward-looking statements?. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, including estimates of resources, mineralization and planned exploration activities; the likelihood of commercial mining and possible future financings are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include unsuccessful exploration results, changes in metals prices, changes in the availability of funding for mineral exploration, unanticipated changes in key management personnel and general economic conditions. Mining is an inherently risky business. Accordingly the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company and the risks and challenges of its business, investors should review the Company?s annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com

CAUTIONARY NOTE TO U.S. INVESTORS CONCERNING ESTIMATES OF MEASURED

 AND INDICATED RESOURCES AND INFERRED RESOURCES

This news release uses the terms ?Measured Resources?, ?Indicated Resources? and ?Inferred Resources?. Nevada Copper advises US investors that while those terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulators, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (?SEC?) does not recognize them and permits U.S. mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves.  ?Inferred Resources? have a great deal of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility.  It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or prefeasibility studies, except in rare cases. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an Inferred Resource exists, or is economically or legally minable.