Ero Copper Corp.
Ero Copper operates the Caraíba and Tucumã copper mines in Bahia and Pará states, Brazil, plus the Xavantina gold mine in Mato Grosso; Q1 2026 consolidated copper production was 17,287 tonnes (Caraíba 8,826t, Tucumã 8,461t) at C1 cash costs of $2.39/lb, with revenue of $263.2 million and net income of $109.3 million. Net debt stood at $490.7 million (1.0x trailing EBITDA) with $146.2 million of liquidity as of March 31, 2026, and full-year 2026 guidance of 67,500-77,500 tonnes copper was reaffirmed.
Notable vs. Peers
- Financials score of 1.7/10 is weaker than the peer average of 5.5/10.
- Jurisdiction risk score of 6/10 is meaningfully riskier than the peer average of 7.6/10.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- Reached — date not disclosed · Installation License (Licenca de Instalacao) for Tucuma issued by the Secretary of Environment and Sustainability of Para in 2021, enabling construction. Exact day not confirmed from available sourcing -- recorded reached-but-undated. (Distinct from the later Operational License, awarded June 12, 2024, the final pre-production permitting milestone.) · Source
- Feb 2022 · Ero Copper's Board approved construction of the Tucuma Project. · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Construction commenced in Q2 2022, following the February 15, 2022 Board approval. No single dated 'construction start' release found; recorded reached-but-undated. · Source
- Jun 2024 · First batch of copper concentrate produced at Tucuma following commissioning of milling and flotation, exceeding process design concentrate grade targets (announced July 23, 2024). Commercial production followed in 2025. · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Genuinely reached, but no single company-wide commercial-production date exists: Ero Copper's core MCSA Mining Complex (Vale do Curaçá, Bahia -- Pilar and Vermelhos underground mines, Surubim open pit, plus the newer Tucumã copper operation in Pará and the Boa Esperança development project) sits alongside the separately-developed Xavantina/NX Gold operation (Mato Grosso), each with distinct development histories. Q2 2026 results (released 2026-08-05) reported revenue of $284.3M, net income of $90.7M, 17,315 tonnes copper and 20,553 oz gold produced, with 2026 copper guidance reaffirmed. This row was missing entirely prior to 2026-08-21 -- a genuine data gap, not a stage error; Miner.stage was already correctly PRODUCTION. · Source
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal the underlying research identifies — whether a major already holds a JV, earn-in, or 5–19.9% strategic stake — isn't tracked yet and is absent from this score.
Your Rankings
Management Team
President and Chief Executive Officer of Ero Copper Corp., appointed effective 1 Jan 2025 (also joined the Board) as part of a planned leadership succession alongside David Strang's move to Executive Chairman. MSc (Metallurgical Engineering), Colorado School of Mines. Joined Ero in Jan 2017 as VP Corporate Development (key role in the company's Oct 2017 IPO), promoted to President in Jan 2021 and additionally COO in Mar 2023. Earlier career: Director, Corporate Finance, FTI Consulting's Global Mining Advisory Practice; Partner, Ero Resource Partners; Investment Analyst, Liberty Metals & Mining LLC (Liberty Mutual Group's mining private-equity arm).
Executive Chairman of Ero Copper Corp., which he co-founded in May 2016 and led as CEO & Director until transitioning to Executive Chairman effective 1 Jan 2025. Undergraduate degree, Stanford University. 30-year mining career with an unusually clean run of real, completed exits: President/CEO of Lumina Copper Corp. (acquired by First Quantum Minerals, Aug 2014), Lumina Royalty Corp. (acquired by Franco-Nevada, 2011), Global Copper Corp. (acquired by Teck Resources, 2008), Lumina Resources Corp. (acquired by Western Copper, 2006), Regalito Copper Corp. (acquired by Pan Pacific, 2006), and VP Corporate Development of Northern Peru Copper Corp./original Lumina Copper Corp. (acquired by China Minmetals/Jiangxi Copper, 2008). Also affiliated with Travers Smith LLP.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ero Copper Corp. since 1 Apr 2017. 20 years of corporate-finance and capital-markets experience spanning multiple commodities and jurisdictions. BComm (Accounting and Finance), University of Cape Town (1993-1996). Career: Director & VP Commercial, BHP Group Ltd. (2003-2007); Head of Business Development, Norilsk Nickel Africa Pty Ltd. (2008-2009); Commercial Executive, Mantra Resources Pty Ltd. (2010-2013); VP Strategy & Development, Coalspur Mines Pty Ltd. (2012-2014); Head of Business & Corporate Development, Asanko Gold Inc./Galiano Gold Inc. (2014-2017), immediately before Ero Copper. Also an independent director of Plateau Energy Metals, Inc.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ero Copper Corp., effective 1 Jan 2025, succeeding Makko DeFilippo -- missing from this DB entirely before this batch (only the CEO, Executive Chairman and CFO were tracked). Over 25 years of international mining experience. Joined Ero in Sep 2024 as Senior Vice President, Operations. Immediately before Ero, ArcelorMittal's Chief Operating Officer, Mining and Executive Director for the company's integrated mining and steel operations in Central Asia; before that, ArcelorMittal's Mining Chief Technology Officer in London (technical services, global exploration and innovation). Earlier career at Rio Tinto and with engineering/technology companies in Canada and South America. Degree in Mining Engineering, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
GMT Capital, an Atlanta long/short equity manager, has been adding: our records have it at 5.9% in a September 2024 filing, and it bought a further 1.29 million shares in the first quarter of 2026 to reach roughly 6.69%, worth about US$84 million. That is the one genuinely directional signal here. The larger holders, T. Rowe Price at about 14% and Fidelity at about 11%, are mainstream fund complexes rather than resource specialists. Working against all of it, insider activity has been entirely one-way: seven insiders sold between November 2025 and June 2026, including John Wright three times and Lyle Braaten three times, with not a single open-market purchase on record.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Ero Copper is a multi-asset producer (Caraiba Operations and Tucuma Operation, both producing copper in Bahia/Para, Brazil; Xavantina gold mine, Mato Grosso) -- there is no single consolidated company-wide DCF study, so mineLifeYears here is the Caraiba Operations' own figure only (the larger, longer-running of the two copper operations): 20-year mine life per Ero's 7 Nov 2022 NI 43-101 reserve/resource update and life-of-mine production plan (effective 30 Sep 2022 for depletion, drilling through 30 Jun 2022) -- Proven+Probable reserves of 82,767 kt @ 0.96% Cu (792.6 kt contained Cu), Measured+Indicated of 117,901 kt @ 1.10% Cu (1,300.8 kt contained Cu, inclusive of reserves), copper price assumption $3.30/lb. Tucuma's own 2021 optimized feasibility study (as 'Boa Esperanca') carries a separate, shorter 12-year mine life ($380M after-tax NPV8%, 41.8% IRR) -- not used here to avoid conflating two different operations' figures into one field. dcfNpvUsd/irrPct deliberately left null: neither operation has a current company-level DCF headline, and the only current PEA-stage NPV/IRR in Ero's disclosure (Furnas: US$2.0B NPV8%/27% IRR/24yr, Feb 2026) is for a separate, not-yet-producing satellite project, not the production-stage Caraiba/Tucuma operations this ticker's stage reflects -- using it here would misrepresent a growth-project PEA as this producer's current economics. ouncesFound left null: see repo-wide OPEN POLICY QUESTION on the ouncesFound/copper unit mismatch (docs/GOLD-DATA-OPERATIONS-PLAYBOOK.md Section 9 Step 0 / Task #324) -- not resolved unilaterally here.