Ero Copper Corp. (NYSE:ERO) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

David Strang: Thanks Orest. Good question. So, with respect to — if you remember, we do have a currently small underground resource with regards to below the current pit, which is very high-grade in nature, very similar to the grades that we’ve been mining in the first couple of years. Mike and the team — and for those who don’t know Mike Richard, our Chief Geologist and the team, are ramping up and getting ready to bring the rigs back in to continue to drill out the underground extension option with a view that we’ll start supplementing when we start seeing the higher grade decline from the open pit that we’ll start supplementing that lower grades as we mine with higher grade from the underground operation. As it stands right now, we’ve got time to be able to do that over the course of the next 18 months to two years and greater clarity will come out with regards to that mine plan over that time period.

So, this is our constant moving target with regards to Tucuma. There’s only so much that we can take on at any one time. But certainly the rigs are getting ready to come back in the fourth quarter with a view to drilling out additional underground resources that can be — looked to be mined. I’d look at it kind of something similar to what we’ve done at [indiscernible] in terms of size operation potentially down the road. And then as I said supplementing the grades from the underground option at that time.

Orest Wowkodaw: Thanks very much.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Craig Hutchison with TD Bank. Please go ahead.

Craig Hutchison: Hi. Good morning, guys. Just a question on Caraiba with regards to the comment that there were some delays in underground development required to access the scheduled high-grade stopes. Is that now behind you guys? Or is there some issues that might creep into Q2 as well?

Makko DeFilippo: Yes. Thanks Craig. We don’t see those issues creeping into Q2. I’d say relative to where we thought would be on development in some of these high-grade stopes that there are a variety of factors contributed to that in terms of equipment availability primarily. So we — as I said in the call here coming out of Q1 and early Q2 we’ve seen strong development rates and also production. So we think that’s largely behind us here.

Craig Hutchison: Okay. And just in your opening remarks I think that they said that you’ve seen some favorable concentrate off-trade terms. I don’t know if you guys can speak to some of those terms and kind of what your exposure is for — in terms of pricing for offtake in the back half of this year? Thanks.

David Strang: Yes. Thanks, Craig. Yes. So we’ve been taking advantage of what a lot of people know in the marketplace is the favorable TC/RC terms. We’ve entered into two contracts so far. They will be kicking in from May onwards this month onwards two-year contracts for about one-third of our production. Obviously, we don’t want to go into too much detail because it’s unfair to all parties involved. But in general the terms are in the low-teens. We are looking to strengthen that portfolio right now with regards to an additional tender that we’re about to enter into with various suppliers and we’re waiting to receive those tender offers over the course of the next couple of weeks to further enhance that and increase the total amount that we have exposed at some of these lower TC/RC rates. But on an overall basis two years for about one-third of our production beginning in May in the low-teens if you look in to model.

Craig Hutchison: Great. Maybe one last question for me. I know you guys are excited about the Furnas project. Any kind of color in terms of when you guys be able to finalize a definitive agreement?

David Strang: Yes. We’re down to Deepk Hundal, our lawyer — Chief Counsel is here. And he is down to the nitty-gritty with regards to the last couple of comments between ourselves and Vale. So that agreement is imminent with regards to signature. This is — with regards to making sure that this agreement is done correctly. This is a template with regards to a lot of things that we’re hoping to work with Vale in the future. So we all want to make sure both from our side and Vale’s side that we get this right. I am happy to say that we have signed with Vale a core sharing agreement that now allows us to move all of the core for the Furnas project into the core shack for the project and that will allow us to immediately move as aggressively as we can to put together a 43-101 compliant mineral reassessment that we hope that we’ll be in a position to share with the market sometime in the third quarter this year.

Craig Hutchison: Thanks. Great. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Stefan Ioannou with Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.

Stefan Ioannou: Yes. Thanks very much, guys. Just wondering with the positive grade reconciliation we’re continuing to see at Xavantina is there any thought of maybe going in and doing some additional drilling ahead of production to really nail down your mine plan? Or I mean I appreciate it’s vein. So maybe is the plan just to continue mining and then get what you get?

Makko DeFilippo: Yes. Great question, Stefan. Look I think the uniqueness of the Xavantina and where we’re at now I think one of the — what we talked about last quarter was the restriction on search ellipses. So we have to go back and check exactly how much infill drilling will be required. But I think for right now the approach that we’ve taken is as Dave mentioned we are doing development ahead of mining. So where we have channel sampling and we have a high degree of confidence in the grades continuing we’ve assumed now flow through our full year production result. But I’d say that in general if you go back several years the reconciliation against our long-term model to short term has been really good. So in terms of going in and drilling out in detail and incurring that additional cost, given where we’re at and where we see the positive reconciliation heading, at least for these next few levels, I’m not sure that, that expense is warranted at this stage.

David Strang: I think, Stefan, just to add to that, I mean, the zone that we’re encountering here is not particularly wide. And so it’s fortuitous that we’ve hit it. We’ve got five or six holes into them. As Makko said, the constraint on top cutting and [indiscernible] is around holes have been conservative in this area. And I think it’s the best thing just to continue to do and just take it as a happy opportunity right now for as long as it continues to give it to us. Certainly, if we’re in a situation next year and we’re already — and we continue to see this, we may have to rethink that strategy. But right now, as Makko said, it’s really not worth trying to drill out this zone and trying to add into our resource or reserve estimate.