Ero Copper intersects highest grade to date at Vermelhos; stock jumps 7%

Ero Copper Corp (TSX: ERO) announced today it has drilled the highest grade-metre intercept so far at the Vermelhos underground mine in Bahia state, Brazil, intersecting 28.1 meters grading 12.60% copper.

Ero Copper’s share price increased by more than 7% on Thursday, taking its market cap to C$1.76 billion.

In its initial drilling, high-grade mineralization was encountered 70 meters beneath the Toboggan orebody. Highlights include 13.4 meters grading 5.86% copper. The holes drilled are showing a 40% increase in the modelled thickness of mineralization in the surrounding areas.

Also at the company’s Pilar open-pit mine, a new zone called Barauna was discovered, where the company intersected 8.4 meters grading 4.02% copper and 6.9 meters grading 3.15% copper approximately 40 meters below the previously known deepest intercept.

The Vancouver-based company is currently focused on copper production in the Vale do Curaca property in Brazil, where it has been operating for 39 years. The company also owns 97.6% of the NX gold mine, the Boa Esperanҫa development project and another gold and silver mine in Matto Grosso, Brazil.