COPPER: Ero Copper hits best drill intercept at Curaca, stock rises

BRAZIL - Ero Copper has hit its highest grade-metre intercept drilled to date at its 99.6%-owned Vale do Curaçá property in Bahia state. On Tuesday, the company released drill results received from March through to early June of this year, focusing on priority target areas within the Pilar and Vermelhos mines, the broader Curaca Valley, as well as extensions of the Santo Antonio vein at the NX gold mine. At Curaca, one drill hole returned 96.4 metres grading 3.97% copper, including 60.6 metres of 5.61% copper — the best intercept drilled so far on the property. Other highlights include 29.9 metres grading 5.90% copper — the deepest intercept drilled to date at the Pilar mine — and 19.6 metres grading 3.61% copper, including 10 metres grading 5.09% copper. Additionally, new drilling based on ongoing data compilation work has demonstrated an extended zone of thicker mineralization in an area previously modelled as discontinuous lenses within the northern known extent of the Pilar mine. At the NX gold mine, drill results continue to demonstrate down-plunge extensions of the high-grade mineralization of the Santo Antonio vein, highlighted by 5.9 metres of 5.09 g/t gold and 2.8 metres grading 11.29 g/t gold. Regional work in the Curaca Valley, which includes both exploration drilling and ground-based geophysical work continues to focus on four newly interpreted mineral systems within the portfolio of targets, the company says. Shares of Ero Copper jumped 8.2% by midday Tuesday, giving the Vancouver-based copper miner a market capitalization of $1.57 billion.