Upon completion of the study scheduled within three months, the firms will have an opportunity to sign an agreement in a bid to build solar power project, which will have an initial power generation capacity of 500MW.
Nevada Copper CEO Giulio Bonifacio said: "Nevada Copper is very interested in developing solar energy on its project area, both to supply power to the mine, and to deliver power to the grid.
"This presents another significant opportunity that is the direct result of the successful passage of the land bill which was signed into law by President Obama and resulted in receipt of all permits to construct a mine."
Nevada Copper expects the solar study to provide site-specific evaluation of the solar potential at the location.
The agreement also includes a 90-day exclusivity period for NV Energy.
Bonifacio added: "Initial investigations indicate the potential for up to 500MW of solar generation on our project landholdings surplus to our mining needs."
Based on the study results, the solar project could be developed as a standalone operation, or as part of the proposed copper mine development at Pumpkin Hollow.
According National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) data, the Pumpkin Hollow project area has a high solar irradiation level of 6.5-7.0 kilowatt hours per square meter per day (kW-hr/m2/day).
