Pilar Mine Deepening Zone Continuity Of High-Grade Discovery Confirmed

VANCOUVER, BC - Ero Copper Corp. reported an update on the ongoing exploration drill programs on its 99.6% owned Vale do Curaçá Property located in Bahia State, Brazil and its 97.6% owned NX Gold Mine located in Mata Grosso State, Brazil. This update encompasses drill results received from December 2019 through March, 2020. Drilling during the period continued to focus on priority target areas within the Pilar Mine, Vermelhos Mine, the broader Curaçá Valley as well as extensions of the Santo Antonio Vein at the NX Gold Mine, all according to the planned drill programs for the first quarter of 2020, which have not been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights: Continued success in demonstrating continuity of the high-grade ‘Superpod’ mineralization below the known extent of the Pilar Mine within the “Deepening Extension” zone, highlighted by: FC47163: 22.8 meters grading 3.18% copper including 10.6 meters grading 5.29% copper; FC5623: 21.8 meters grading 2.27% copper including 2.8 meters grading 7.76% copper, drilled approximately 400 meters north of hole FC47163 and mineralized intercepts within the Deepening Extension now extend over approximately 800 meters in strike length and to depth over 400 meters below the current level of the primary ramp. The zone remains open to the north and to depth. Extended the known limits of the Vermelhos Mine orebodies from the initial results of a systematic fan drill program surrounding the main orebodies of Toboggan and Sombrero, including to depth, highlighted by: FVS-709: 7.6 meters grading 11.48% copper including 4.6 meters grading 17.39% copper, located approximately 10 meters east of Toboggan; FVS-585: 10.0 meters grading 2.98% copper including 3.4 meters grading 4.79% copper located approximately 20 meters east of Toboggan and FVS-638: 7.2 meters grading 2.16% copper including 2.0 meters grading 4.62% copper and hole FVS-634: 2.5 meters grading 3.52% copper, located approximately 96 meters and 125 meters beneath the main Vermelhos orebodies, respectively, making them the deepest known intercepts beneath the Vermelhos main orebodies to date. Additional drilling is planned to further define the size and extent of these newly intercepted lenses at depth. Extended the known limits of mineralization within the Siriema deposit by an additional 400 meters beneath the current inferred mineral resource limit with wide-spaced, down-plunge, 200 meter step-out exploration drilling resulting in a series of deeper intercepts, highlighted by: FSI-89: 6.0 meters grading 2.21% copper including 3.0 meters grading 3.12% copper, located approximately 400 meters down-plunge of the current mineral resource along a north-plunging structural conduit that can be traced to the Keel Zone. Drilling remains focused on following the structural conduit to the north and to depth to further evaluate potential for a wider zone of mineralization and the potential for additional copper-nickel and platinum group metal (“PGM”) zonation first observed within the Keel Zone of the Siriema deposit.

At the NX Gold Mine, continued success in programs focused on upgrading the current inferred mineral resource and testing down-plunge extensions of the high-grade mineralization of the Santo Antonio vein. Results are highlighted by: SA69: 3.8 meters grading 19.22 grams per tonne gold drilled at the limit of the current inferred mineral resource and SA73: 4.9 meters grading 10.21 grams per tonne gold, hole SA70: 4.9 meters grading 9.53 grams per tonne gold and SA76: 3.5 meters grading 2.24 grams per tonne, located approximately 30 meters, 45 meters and 125 meters down-plunge from the limits of the current mineral resource (and hole SA69), respectively. The Santo Antonio vein remains open to depth.

Regional work comprised of both exploration drilling and ground-based geophysical work is currently focused on four newly interpreted mineral systems within the portfolio of targets defined by the Company’s comprehensive targeting work. Each of the new systems has an average strike length of 5 kilometers and contain multiple priority drill targets. While preliminary results are encouraging, additional detail on these ongoing exploration programs is expected during the second half of the year.

David Strang, President & CEO, said, “At the outset of 2020 we set ourselves several objectives with this years’ exploration program. The first and foremost objective was to demonstrate continuity of high-grade mineralization within the Deepening Extension zone of the Pilar Mine. We believe successful execution of this program, as demonstrated in this first quarter update, continues to have the potential to meaningfully contribute to securing the future production profile of the Company and be instrumental in maintaining an elevated grade profile in the years to come. Similarly, the results from resource upgrade and extensional exploration programs at the NX Gold Mine give us comfort that we will be able to continue to add significantly to mine life and secure the future of the mine.

While the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted our planned exploration programs, the closure of many third-party laboratories has limited our ability over the near-term to analyze for cobalt, gold and PGMs (although we are currently building this capability in-house). Despite these pending assays, I am pleased to say that we have made significant strides during the first quarter in extending mineralization across each of the assets within our portfolio. In addition to the successes at Pilar and at the NX Gold Mine, notable extensions of the Siriema controlling structure to depth and the preliminary, but exciting, results from the systematic Vermelhos Mine fan drilling speak to the successes our exploration teams are having throughout our organization.

As we look forward to the balance of the year, and a progression to more regional drilling, we see the emergence of four key regional mineralized systems on which we are focusing our exploration efforts in the near to medium term. By year-end, we continue to expect the majority of our total meterage drilled will be allocated to a selection of targets within these systems.”

Twenty-six drill rigs are currently operating in the Curaçá Valley, including twelve within the Pilar District, eleven in the Vermelhos District, and there are currently seven drill rigs (including four within the Vermelhos District) operating on regional exploration targets in the Curaçá Valley. Five additional drill rigs are currently operating at the NX Gold Mine.

Expansions and extensions, as referenced herein, reflect mineralization not captured in the Company’s mineral resource and mineral reserve models used in the current (2019) mineral resource and reserve estimate. There has been insufficient work and analysis surrounding new discoveries, as referenced herein, to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration and analysis will result in such targets being delineated as a mineral resource.