Q1 2025 Ero Copper Corp Earnings Call

Speaker Change: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Ero Copper first quarter, 2025 operating and financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded.

Speaker Change: After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Join the question queue to request our then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero.

Speaker Change: I would now like to turn the conference over to Courtney Lynn, Executive Vice President, External Affairs, and Strategy. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator.

Speaker Change: Good morning and welcome to Ero Copper's first quarter earnings call. Our operating and financial results were released yesterday afternoon in our available on our website, along with our financial statements and MDNA for the three months ended March 31st, 2025.

Speaker Change: A corresponding earnings presentation can be downloaded directly from the webcast and is also available in the presentation section of our website.

Speaker Change: Joining me on my call today, Armago DeFilippo, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wayne Drier, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Angelton Batista, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Speaker Change: Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially.

Speaker Change: For a detailed discussion of these risks and their potential impact on our business, please refer to our most recent annual information form, available on our website as well as on

Speaker Change: Unless otherwise noted, all figures discussed today are in US dollars. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Makko DeFilippo.

Makko DeFilippo: Thank you, Courtney, and thank you everyone for taking the time to join us today. Our first quarter marked a critical period to set up our operations and our company for success.

Makko DeFilippo: During the first few months of 2025, we have made meaningful progress towards achieving our near-term objectives while laying important groundwork for sustainable growth in copper production, increased operating margins, and long-term value creation across our portfolio.

Makko DeFilippo: I am deeply thankful for the ongoing contributions of our global leadership team toward achieving this vision.

Makko DeFilippo: Our near-term strategy for Ero is simple and it remains unchanged.

Makko DeFilippo: As I have said before, there are four steps to this strategy. [inaudible]

Step 1, Achieve Commercial Production at Tukuma.

To the Elevator Ballon Cheat.

Makko DeFilippo: Three, aggressively advance long-term growth initiatives, including our partnership on Fernandez, and step four, initiate returns to shareholders.

Makko DeFilippo: Starting with Tukama and the first step of our strategy, we remain on track to achieve commercial production over the coming weeks.

Makko DeFilippo: It was a productive start to the year that involved two extended periods of planned down time in January and February in order to address plant bottlenecks that we identified during the ramp-up of the operation in late 2024.

Makko DeFilippo: The successful execution of this program allowed consistent military put and with the elevated grades that we are seeing early in the mind life, the month of March accounted for more than half of two-month total plant throughput and copper production during the first quarter.

Makko DeFilippo: In April , we focused our attention on one of the last remaining items outstanding on our punch list, repairing the damaged third tailings filter, which we completed at the end of the month.

Makko DeFilippo: We expect throughput volumes to increase steadily over the coming weeks and months as a result of these modifications and repairs.

Makko DeFilippo: With respect to timing of commercial production, it is worth noting that Tukama operation contributed a significant portion to our consolidated that income and EBITDA during the first quarter.

Makko DeFilippo: That said, it is still early in May, and we are taking a measured approach here to ensure that the expected throughput improvements, following the release of the third filter, are maintained prior to making this designation. Thank you very much.

Makko DeFilippo: In summary, we're closing gaps on commercial production at Tukama. We're setting solid foundations to ensure long-term success for the operation, and we are reaffirming our guidance ranges for the full year.

Makko DeFilippo: The growing contribution from Tukama will position us well to begin delivering on our second near-term objective of deweveraging our balance sheet.

Makko DeFilippo: While we expect this to occur naturally with increasing consolidated EBITDA, the semi-metal prices remain constructive, we expect to begin repaying our revolving credit facility during the second half of the year.

Makko DeFilippo: In parallel, we have continued to aggressively advance our longer-term growth initiatives. These efforts are concentrated currently at Fernos, where we have eight drill rigs operating on-site.

Makko DeFilippo: We remain on track to complete the phase one drill program during the third quarter of this year, and are pleased with the results we are seeing best far.

Makko DeFilippo: In parallel, we are advancing confirmatory technical work in support of a preliminary economic assessment on the project, which we expect to publish in the first half of 2026.

Makko DeFilippo: Before I turn the call over to Wayne, I would like to share a bit of detail on our operating performance during the first quarter at Kareba and Javinchina, and touch on the investments we are making there to enhance operational flexibility and further support long-term growth.

Makko DeFilippo: At Arcariba Operations, Lower Plan Mind and Process Copper Grades resulted in a quarter-on-quarter decline in copper production and elevated Union costs during the first quarter.

Makko DeFilippo: While total mine and process tonnage remained relatively flat compared to the fourth quarter, we've begun to see the benefits of our additional investment in development, which resulted in target mining rates being achieved at the Pilar mine in March.

Makko DeFilippo: In further support of this effort, we successfully mobilized a second underground development contractor during the quarter, and we expect sequential growth in mind and process volumes, and as a result copper production through the remainder of the year at Kareva.

Makko DeFilippo: At Arjun Chino Operations, total mine and process volumes increased by more than 27% quarter on quarter, however lower grade mine and process resulted in a decrease in total gold production.

Makko DeFilippo: While a modest decrease in production was anticipated during the first quarter, grazing countered within planned operational areas were slightly below expectations.

Makko DeFilippo: In addition, the need for additional ground support, access points of several newly developed higher-grade areas within San Antonio, delayed contributions from this area.

Makko DeFilippo: Through the remainder of the year, continued investment in low-profile mining equipment and support infrastructure is expected to support increased mind and process lawyers.

Makko DeFilippo: We see great improving as compared to the first quarter, which we expect will support higher production levels and lower unit cost as we move forward. To ensure we have sufficient time for Q&A, I will leave it there and pass the call to Wayne who will provide more detailed financial results. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Makko.

Wayne Drier: Our financial results reflect the growing contribution from the Tukumar operation and stronger metal prices, which together drove quarter on quarter adjusted EBITDA of $65.4 million in adjusted net income attributable to owners of the company of $35.8 million, or $0.35 per share.

Wayne Drier: We ended the quarter with a solid liquidity position of $116 million, supported by several actions to further strengthen our balance sheet and support long-term growth.

Wayne Drier: In March, we drew the remaining 25 million available and our copper prepayment facility to support working capital needs related to the ramp up at Tukuma.

Wayne Drier: To help protect cash flows amid continued macroeconomic uncertainty and copper price volatility, we opportunistically entered into zero-cost copper collars, covering 3,000 tons of copper per month, from April through September of this year.

Wayne Drier: These contracts provide downside protection at a floor price of $4 per pound with an average ceiling price of $4.68 per pound.

Wayne Drier: Just prior to quarter-end, we also extended our stream agreement with Royal Gold, in exchange for $50 million in upfront proceeds, bringing total proceeds under the 17th stream to $160 million.

Wayne Drier: With key capital investments underway at Seventeena, this transaction offered a dedicated non-dilutive source of funding to support investments focused on asset integrity and margin expansion.

Wayne Drier: Turning to our foreign exchange hedge program, our total notional position at quarter-end was $332.5 million, consisting of zero cost collars with a weighted average floor and ceiling of $552.649 real per US dollar respectively.

Please extend through to June , 2026.

Wayne Drier: While we recorded a realized loss of $2.2 million related to colours that matured in December 2024, the reality US dollar exchange rate remained largely within our colour range during the first quarter.

Makko DeFilippo: I'll now pass the call back to Makko for some closing remarks.

Makko DeFilippo: Thank you, Wayne. Before we move into the Q&A session, I want to take a moment to reiterate our commitment to delivering on our four-pillar strategy over the near term.

Achieving commercial production at Tuckermont remains our top priority.

Makko DeFilippo: With that, I'll now turn the call back to the operator to open the line for questions.

Arjun Chandar, Ero Copper Corp.

Thank you.

Speaker Change: To join the question to you, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speaker phone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Thank you.

Speaker Change: First question comes from Dalton Baretto, with Ken Accord, please go ahead.

Dalton Barreto: Thanks, sir. Good morning, guys. Hey, Makko. Thanks for the operating color through Marksman. One of you can give us an update at all of the assets and how they're doing in April . Thank you.

Dalton Barreto: Thanks, Dalton. I appreciate the question. Let's just kind of run to the list here. In April , starting at Javichino, we're seeing grades improving. We're seeing productivity increase from the mine as we expected to come out at a Q1 here. So positive indications on that side of things.

In...

Dalton Barreto: Karibah, obviously we're now starting to see the benefits of the third-party contractor at Karibah and specifically the Polar Mine. We're starting to see the benefits of the third-party contractor.

Dalton Barreto: So being able to maintain target mining rates at Polar is obviously a very important milestone for us to be able to improve the consistency and operating performance there.

Dalton Barreto: So pretty it occurs about we're seeing on both of our operating assets given the transformational program that we started at the tail end of last year and continued year through the first quarter. And then at Tsukumon.

Dalton Barreto: I think as we outlined on the call here, we completed the third Pilter Press repairs at the very end of the month.

Dalton Barreto: I'd say from April's perspective, it was aligned with our expectations in terms of being able to execute that program.

Dalton Barreto: Until the third filter process is fully operational, we expect truth of volumes to be.

Dalton Barreto: to be somewhat muted, and that was reflected in our guidance range for the full year and our expectations for the first half. So...

Dalton Barreto: Stay tuned on that side, as I said, pretty pleased with the performance overall across all three of our operations. And stay tuned.

Speaker Change: Thanks for that, Makko. And then, if I can just maybe ask a question of Wayne, there may be a bit more about how to speeden the item. I think it was a $43 million advanced customer on your casual statement. Just one of you can wrap some context around that. Thanks.

Wayne Drier: Yeah, sure, Dalton, I mean, if you actually have a look at the accounts receivable for the quarter, there was exceptionally elevator as well. What that was was that we switched some sales from one trading house to another late in the quarter, so what you really see is...

Speaker Change: They're an elevated accounts payable, but also an elevated accounts receivables. So it's really just some accounting treatment right at the end of the quarter. [inaudible]

You got it. Thanks very much, Wayne. That's off, man.

Arjun Chandar, Orest Wowkodaw,

Emerson Vieira: The next question comes from Emerson Beer with Goldman Sachs, please go ahead.

Emerson Vieira: Good morning everyone, Tiki, thank you for the opportunity. So, I have a question to come on first. You guys mentioned that going forward we would expect lower grade and improving throughput, so just want to understand. Thank you, Ian.

Emerson Vieira: The reason why we expect great to be marginally lower, so this is a result of plenty in the ball meals. Can you please elaborate on that? So that's the first question.

Emerson Vieira: A second one goes on Chavantina, also a 100-handed.

Speaker Change: Why would you expect great improvement in the coming quarter? Is this a consequence of a soft comparison base? Or indeed there is a structural improvement in grade? And would that...

come back to the rest of the year's levels.

Speaker Change: I'm just upon the wall on Sabantina and also connecting to liquidity management. I see that you guys are extremely interested in the Sabantina Stream Gold Agreement.

Speaker Change: By some 70,000 ounces, with implied better prices indeed, but considering the current outlook for a good price.

Speaker Change: and the positive outlook on Tukuma's hump-up as well. I wonder if this Gold Streaming strategy will continue to be part of the company's liquidity management going forward. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Perfect, thank you. Lots of unpack there, but I took notes if I missed anything. I apologize. Let's run through those more. So starting first with Tukamon, the

Speaker Change: Increasing throughput and declining grade, I want to stress as a bit of context that that was always poor the strategy that took my deposit as a very, very high grade upper benches of the mine. This phase zero phase one is very high grade.

been an artifact of the

Project Sense Inception. It's the reason that we have...

Speaker Change: Such a high return on that project and the operation and we're seeing that. I think as we alluded to.

Speaker Change: Of the last couple quarters, what we saw on our infield drilling was in fact a bit higher grade in some of these areas than we expected. And so we're really entourage with the signs that we're seeing on the grades. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: And obviously, we expect as we move through that high grade for great to Declan, I would note just from a...

An Outlook Perspective that to the extent that throughputs remain lower than—

Speaker Change: You know, then the original design, obviously that extends that high grade further out in time, but the contained metal volume is the same. So that's starting with Yukima, it's an artifact of geology and the mind plan.

Speaker Change: It's really important to look at the context here, you know, we went through two years of significant positive grade reconciliation, you know, to the tune of...

Speaker Change: You know, more than 15 percent. And so what I look at the first quarter in that context, yes, some of the operational areas that we had were a bit lower grade. We also planned for lower grades throughout the year, relative to prior periods.

Speaker Change: And we see the grades here in April in the root part of May, returning to normalize levels against our full year. So I think it was really a moment in time. We also had, as I out on the call, a couple of levels. And I think it was really a moment in time.

Speaker Change: That required some additional ground support in the access that delayed the mining of these levels, which we're seeing higher grades and we expect higher grades to continue. So again, but I think that historical context is important there.

Speaker Change: In terms of liquidity management, obviously very pleased with where the gold price is. I think commodity prices in general are having a strong tailwind here. And we're quite pleased with that.

Warrior!

Speaker Change: From my perspective, you know, we have a big capital outlay at Javinchina this year, we're putting in quite a bit of low profile equipment. We're, as Wayne mentioned, have a big asset integrity program. You know, we're putting in a big asset integrity program.

And so what we thought to do with the stream...

Speaker Change: Was, I'd say, a lot of liquidity management tool, but rather as a partnership to further develop

Speaker Change: Have a great partner in real gold. They've been supporting this project for the last several years.

Speaker Change: They continue to invest alongside us in this asset. They believe in our exploration programs. They support us in the work that we do around the community. So, I think, from my perspective, it was an opportunity to tap into that partnership to further advance Javinchina at a time when we don't get rewarded for that capital investment that we're making.

Arjun Chandar, Ero Copper Corp.

Alright, very clear, Makko. Thank you.

Thank you. Bye.

Speaker Change: The next question comes from Orest Wowkodaw, with Kosha Banks, please go ahead.

Die Good Morning, just on the two-comer ramp.

Speaker Change: Now that you have completed the maintenance work and the replacement of the third...

Filter Press. Is there anything left?

Speaker Change: That is been identified to date, that still needs to be replaced, repaired, and I'm wondering if there is scheduled meaningful scheduled maintenance ahead over the next couple of months that we should be aware of.

Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks Orest. Same in terms of big building pieces, I think we're pretty happy with where we're at.

Speaker Change: Obviously, we're gonna continue to adapt that and review any additional modifications that are needed as we ramp up volumes.

Speaker Change: But in terms of the items that we identified last year during ramp up the major constraints and bottlenecks that we identified, we've, you know, substantively completed those.

Speaker Change: So, we don't anticipate any major downtime. Obviously, we still have plan maintenance for the mill and plan maintenance for the filter process, so we expect periodic downtime, but nothing to the extent of what we saw in January and February of this year.

Speaker Change: Okay, and as a follow-up, can you give us an update on what's happening with the power situation at Tukama? Like, are you still having issues where the mill is going down temporarily in terms of oscillating, I guess, that power on the grid, or is that now behind you and is the permanent solution now in place?

Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks Orest. We do still see oscillations on the power line for sure. We haven't seen the levels of disruption since we implemented the solution that we put in place late last year. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: And so we've been pretty happy with the performance of that system. We're still evaluating the longer term solution to normalize tower as we discuss last quarter.

Speaker Change: And also the reach in terms of distance from our operation. We want to make sure that what we put in place covers the asset not only for this year but for the

Speaker Change: for the life of the mind. And so that data collection process is over. We're continuing to work here in the second quarter on design and implementation of what that looks like exactly. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: But again, with the performance that we've seen and the consistency of operations, we don't see that as a big bottleneck going forward. Obviously, we still want to address that issue for the long term, but in the near to medium term, we don't see that as a big getting item.

Speaker Change: Okay, is that, can you quantify that for us in terms of sort of the current state, like how many times a month is power tripping and just trying to get a sense of how much that's impacting the ramp up still.

Speaker Change: Yeah, Orest as I said, we don't see that as being a dating item for us right now.

Okay, great.

Gabe Rosito: The next question comes from Gary Rosito with Bank of America, please go ahead.

Arjun Chandar, Ero Copper Corp.

Gabe Rosito: Thank you and good morning everyone. Thank you for taking my questions.

Speaker Change: And my second question, Karayput. Of course, we're higher, but volumes are low, but nevertheless, of course, we're below the...

Speaker Change: Top end of this, she won Guilherme, so the strength and strength here is great, speak up, as well as speak up if you can expect. She wants to be around the bottom end of your Guilherme for this year. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Yeah, both good questions. But on timing communication commercial production, as said, we're being thoughtful about how we view that delineation, that designation.

Speaker Change: We just came through the final repairs that filter press, so we want to see that operating for a bit of time here.

Speaker Change: So when we say we're on track for the first half of the year, I'm going to stick with that and rather give the first half of the year, feel comfortable with that. But in terms of the difference between May and June , we'll skip that detail for now.

Speaker Change: In terms of cost at Carriva, yeah, look, it's a great point. One that we've made a huge effort across our organization on mortgage expansion. Obviously, we benefited a little bit here in the first quarter from the fore exchange, and we continue to see that supporting.

U.S. Delaware Operating Marigains.

Speaker Change: Through, you know, through right now, we'll see what happens through the ballots of a year, but we've historically...

Speaker Change: Planed our operations at relatively conservative effects rates, and obviously as Wayne mentioned, we have the floors in place at 550.

Speaker Change: So we're very happy with where we see operating margins and some of the effort that we've been making, that we've been put in place on procurement and operating efficiencies, making an impact on we expect to continue going forward.

Please, thank you very much.

Thank you for watching!

Speaker Change: The next question comes from Craig Hutchison. It's P.D. Cohen. Please go ahead.

Craig Hutchinson: Hi guys, thanks for taking my question. Just again, back from a Kupema. I think you mentioned that the final pair of the proper presses was done at the end of April . Is that a month behind? So I think the original guidance was end of Q1.

Yeah, thanks, Craig. We-

Craig Hutchinson: Always planned for that to be done towards the end of Q1. I think it would slip by a couple of weeks there, but we had planned in our outlook for the year as I said early on, a wide range of...

Craig Hutchinson: of possibilities in terms of getting people with equipment to site. So we don't view that couple week split in the schedule as being significant for our outlook on the four-year at Tukama.

Speaker Change: Okay, great. And can you just define how do you guys define commercial production? What are those metrics again?

Speaker Change: Yeah, I think we've been pretty clear all along what those metrics are, and as I outlined on the last quarterly conference call, we are reviewing those in the context of where we see filter press performance.

Speaker Change: On the concentrate side, as we outlined here in Q1, March was a very strong month producing well over half of the...

Speaker Change: Consolidate Copper, or half of the copper production from Tithama for the quarter.

And...

Speaker Change: You know, I think one of the things that we've been talking about, Craig, is that when you look at the grades...

Speaker Change: For the process, that two come out particularly with the highest grade, higher grades, or even over 2% copper.

Speaker Change: That's more than double the average life of mine grade. So I think we're still having those discussions as a team. And I think one of the important points to note is that recovery and concentrate grades continue to perform. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: Aligned or better than what we expected. So, you know, there's two metrics we look at. Obviously throughput rates is one in consistency of performance, recovery and cost-trick rates is another. We feel that we're very close on both of those fronts.

Speaker Change: Okay, great. I mean, there's one last question. Just, the mining rates that Kuma came off quite a lot of the score. If that's just a function, you have plenty of inventories at this point, and those trucks are just put idle, or they redirected to Tillings Management Facility.

Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks, Craig. Absolutely hit it on the head. You know, we've been progressing well ahead of the mind plan for the last couple of years here, basically since we started Police Trip.

Speaker Change: We have a huge amount of inventory on stockpiles. We moved, our money fleet didn't stop operations. They did moderate a little bit in first quarter, but they moved to wasteripping. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: And it's part of the reason that we saw an elevated stripping ratio in the first quarter and we've resumed here mining activities in the second quarter.

Great. Thanks, guys.

Speaker Change: Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. The next question comes from Kate Nakagawa, the TRBC, please go ahead.

Kate Nakagawa: Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. I'm asking on behalf of my analyst Anita Sony.

Kate Nakagawa: I'm just looking to understand the commentary around mobilization of the contractors at Careba and March. Does that mean we should be expecting mining costs to increase for the remainder of the year? Or will they remain relatively in line with the mining costs we saw in Q1? Thank you.

Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks. It's important to note that most of the development that we're doing with our pre-contractors is capitalized, so that's been fully reflected in our guidance. It won't.

Speaker Change: There's perhaps a very small allocation to operating costs, but in general our development contractors mobilize to capitalize developments, so we don't see that impacting our operating costs.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you for watching!

Speaker Change: We have a follow-up question from Dalton Baretto with Canacred Denuity. Please go ahead.

Dalton Barreto: Yes, thanks for taking my follow-up. I've done it to its peers a little bit. I feel like we haven't talked about exploration in some time now. Makko, can you give us an update on how you're allocating the dollar you spending today?

And what you're saying, thanks.

Makko DeFilippo: Yeah, thanks, Dalton. Explorations still one of the core values of Arrow has been since inception, but most of our efforts currently are focused on...

Makko DeFilippo: Fernos, we have H.O.R.E. turning. We're very encouraged by the results that we're seeing there.

Makko DeFilippo: We hope to give an update sometime in the next couple of months on what we're seeing there, and that's been the main focus. I would say at Currybub.

Makko DeFilippo: We're still doing work both around our existing operations, you know, infilling the deepening is a priority objective for this year.

And throughout the Curacao Valley, both on copper and nickel targets.

Makko DeFilippo: And then at Javinchina, through the support of Royal Gold, we've expanded a bit of our exploration program there both in the mind.

to extend mine life, and then also throughout the region. So...

Makko DeFilippo: I said, still a focus of ours, Dalton for sure. Obviously our top priority here is on Tukama, but I would expect us to give more of an update on what we're doing, particularly for us later in the year.

Speaker Change: That's great. Thanks, Makko. And then maybe if I could just stay on Chief Emma, I'm just thinking out a little bit longer term. What's the latest thinking now in terms of thoughts? Some of the stuff we've talked about in the past in terms of backfilling the grade drop? Yeah.

[inaudible]

Dalton Barreto: Great question. We have a program at Tukama that we've talked about before, where we see high grades in the lower part of the pit bottom. So I would say it's done too early to talk in too much detail about that. We see a couple of different pathways. [inaudible]

Dalton Barreto: To being able to maintain elevated production profiles for longer than were previously outlined, but we're still working through those scenarios and opportunities. So I think it's too early, really to dive in too much detail on that.

Is there still a regional m&a program in place? [inaudible]

Dalton Barreto: Look, we are very active in the Karajas, pretty happy with our land pockets right now at Tukamaw.

We have a couple of programs.

Throughout the car is ours that are looking at different opportunities.

But again, our core focus and…

Dalton Barreto: As a team, and certainly on the expiration size is for an off. But yeah, we continue to look at things in the broader region to support the TICM operation. You know, it's the only the sulfide mill operating. The TICM operation is for the TICM operation.

Dalton Barreto: On the western side of the carriage house, so we still see a unique strategic advantage there that we expect will pay off in the long term. But again, focus is on getting that mind up to commercial commercial production levels.

Great. That's awesome. Hey, thanks.

Thanks a lot

Roald Ross: The next question comes from Rolls-Rolls with Clarkson Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi guys.

Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com

Speaker Change: Yeah, good questions. The shaft is going well. It's a courted plan. I mean, really, we're not talking about that being operational until 2027. So finishing the shaft thinking towards the end of 2026. So, you know, still a lot of ways to go on that project, but things are progressing well. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: The main milestones for us are really day-by-day here. I mean, we've completed the surface infrastructure for advancing shafts and king. It's a day-by-day.

Speaker Change: Blast in line. And then do that the following day as well. So...

Speaker Change: Not too much to say on milestones other than we're advancing that project day by day here.

Speaker Change: In terms of cost allocation for 2025, we expect the entire deepened project including or handling system and the development associated with some of the people working in the mind to be about $80 to $90 million a year and that's fully reflected in our guidance range.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker Change: A sort of lower production this quarter, but you reaffirm the volume of the full year. Are you expecting a...

Speaker Change: Sequential progress throughout the year or straight back to a high level next quarter or how do you view the progression for 2025?

Speaker Change: Yeah, I think it's more of a study progression and the reason for that is that we've...

Speaker Change: We continue to have equipment arrive on site, our low profile equipment that we've purchased last year is arriving on site sequentially throughout the year, and our increase in production volumes matches those delivery timelines.

Okay, thank you.

Speaker Change: We have a follow-up question from Emerson Yara and Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Emerson Vieira: Hey guys, thanks again. Just a follow-up on to Cooper. You mentioned that you guys are always viewing the metrics. The metrics use it in order to declare commercial production. So I just want to understand a little bit better. What types of variables are you guys? Yeah.

Emerson Vieira: Starting to change here, is it the 80% production in terms of consent capacity or demo of time needed running at that level? So this is my question. Thank you.

Thanks for the question.

Emerson Vieira: To be clear there with respect to commercial production, those discussions that we're still having. I would say that at the current grades of two times the life of blind average should be very difficult to feed 100% of military put. And so that balances what we're in discussions with as a team in making that designation. But I would say if you just take a big step back. Thank you very much.

Emerson Vieira: And you look at the contribution of Tukama to our consolidated net income and our EBITDA for the quarter, with really only one month of production. I think you can see that we expect Tukama to be a meaningful contributor to our consolidated results. Thank you very much.

Emerson Vieira: I think that's probably a large factor as well. I don't know if Wayne, you've got anything bad on that but...

Wayne Drier: No, and obviously the concept of commercial production in pure accounting terms is when management deem the asset fully ready for fully operational and it is a very subjective measure. There is no set measure with certainly with our auditors.

Makko DeFilippo: I would say, as Makko pointed out, as the asset ramps up here and we continue to see significant free cash flow generation from the asset.

Makko DeFilippo: The likelihood that from an accounting perspective, we can continue to not declare commercial production gets smaller and smaller. So I think at the end of the day, as Makko said, we...

Makko DeFilippo: We're assessing that, I'd say, we feel we are getting close and hopefully that will occur in the near future.

Arjun Chandar, Ero Copper Corp.

Okay, thank you.

Makko DeFilippo: This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Makko DeFilippo for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Makko DeFilippo: I appreciate everyone taking this time today. It was a lively Q&A, and I certainly appreciate that as the rest of the team, so appreciate your time. Obviously, myself and our leadership team always available for any follow-up questions. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines.

Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.