It also reported a 69% increase in measured and indicated resources to 72Mt containing 894,000t of copper inclusive of mineral reserves.

An updated life-of-mine production plan increases copper production by 140,000t compared to the 2018 technical report with a flexible and phased plan to return the Caraíba Mill to its original design capacity of 5.5Mt per annum with a preliminary capital expenditure estimate of $63 million.

"Since acquiring the operations in the Curaca Valley in 2016, we have continued to significantly grow mineral resources and reserves annually. In addition, our updated LOM plan continues to increase the copper production profile over the prior year. In 2018, we set out a plan to produce about 40,000t of copper annually for the following six years and in 2019, that plan has increased to about 50,000t of copper," said president and CEO David Strang.

The exploration focus of Ero is moving towards delineating new, higher grade mineral resources and reserves away from existing operations. It plans to take a phased approach to investing capital in the Caraíba mill and is evaluating ore sorting, which has the potential to increase mill head grades at reduced mill throughput.

Shares in Ero Copper are trading at C$18, valuing the company at $1.5 billion.