Salazar Resources expands mining operations in Ecuador

Ecuador's Mining Reset Is Opening Doors. Salazar Resources Is Walking Through All of Them

Issued on behalf of Salazar Resources Limited

In less than a month, Salazar Resources defined a 1.5 km by 0.5 km copper-gold porphyry mineralized footprint at Monja, received a government fee exemption that materially improves the economics of exploration-stage companies across Ecuador, and watched El Domo -- the mine under construction in which it holds a 25% carried interest -- have its after-tax NPV confirmed at US$573 million. Then, on July 24, Canada and Ecuador signed a free trade agreement. The four events are distinct. The story they tell together is not.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA News Group News Commentary - Ecuador's reputation as a mining jurisdiction has been under construction for years. In June and July 2026, four separate developments converged to sharpen the investment thesis for companies operating in the country, and Salazar Resources Limited found itself at the intersection of all four. A copper-gold porphyry system at the company's wholly owned Monja Project delivered results that confirm the scale and continuity of a well-developed surface mineralizing system.

Ecuador's mining regulator issued a formal exemption removing exploration-stage companies from an oversight fee that had been threatening to suppress early-stage investment. And the after-tax NPV of El Domo, the polymetallic mine being constructed by Silvercorp Metals in which Salazar holds a 25% fully carried interest, was independently confirmed at US$573 million, a 121% increase from the 2021 feasibility study figure. And on July 24, Canada and Ecuador signed a comprehensive free trade agreement, formalizing investment protection between the jurisdiction where Salazar's entire portfolio sits and the capital market where its shares trade. Each of these developments would be noteworthy in isolation. Together they describe a company whose multiple value levers are moving simultaneously.

Companies mentioned: Salazar Resources Limited (TSXV: SRL) (OTCQB: SRLZF) (FSE: CCG), Solaris Resources Inc. (TSX: SLS) (NYSE: SLSR), Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX), Ero Copper Corp. (TSX: ERO) (NYSE: ERO), Atico Mining Corporation (TSXV: ATY) (OTCQX: ATCMF)

Key Takeaways

• Monja porphyry footprint confirmed at 1.5 km by 0.5 km. Rock sampling across 99 samples returned 64% above 300 ppm copper, with top results including 1.71% Cu, 0.99 g/t Au, and 10.3 g/t Ag. Stockwork veining averaging 10 veins per metre was mapped along a 150-metre creek section, confirming structural continuity of a well-developed porphyry system.
• Ecuador's exploration fee exemption is a direct financial benefit. Resolution No. ARCOM-006/26 exempts exploration-stage projects from the Mining Oversight and Control Fee and waives the 2026 fiscal year charge entirely -- removing a cost burden Salazar itself had flagged as unsustainable in a June 2025 press release.
• Canada and Ecuador signed a free trade agreement on July 24, 2026. The 29-chapter treaty spans goods, services, investment, and dispute settlement. Once ratified, it will eliminate Canadian tariffs on 99.6% of Ecuadorian exports and phase out Ecuadorian tariffs on 97.2% of tariff lines for Canadian goods -- formalizing investor protections in the jurisdiction where Salazar's entire portfolio sits.
• El Domo NPV up 121%. An independent NI 43-101 technical report by SRK Consulting confirmed an after-tax NPV of US$573 million at an 8% discount rate for El Domo, versus US$259 million in the 2021 feasibility study. At a 5% discount rate the after-tax NPV is US$705.6 million.
• El Domo construction on track for mid-2027. Silvercorp, the operator, has a production target of July 1, 2027. Salazar receives 25% of cash flows from a fully funded, fully constructed mine without contributing development capital.
• A five-project 100%-owned exploration portfolio alongside the carried interest. The wholly owned portfolio -- Monja, Santiago, Pijilí, El Tigre, and Tarqui-Quimi -- provides district-scale optionality across Ecuador's most prospective copper-gold belts.

Monja: What the Latest Results Mean

The Monja Project in Loja Province, southern Ecuador, covers 9,088 hectares across two mineral concessions and was identified by Salazar as its cornerstone exploration asset following a comprehensive portfolio review in April 2026. The rationale for that designation was a porphyry core that surface sampling had already outlined at approximately 2 kilometres by 1 kilometre. The June 30 release narrows the focus to the central 1.5 kilometre by 0.5 kilometre area where the most recent campaign was concentrated -- and the results from that tighter zone are compelling.

Across 99 rock samples, 64% returned copper values above 300 ppm and 20% exceeded 1,000 ppm copper. The top results -- 1.71% Cu with 0.99 g/t Au and 162 ppm molybdenum, 1.29% Cu with 0.61 g/t Au, and 1.09% Cu with 0.61 g/t Au -- carry the characteristic multi-element signature of a well-developed copper-gold porphyry. The presence of molybdenum is particularly notable: molybdenum in elevated concentrations alongside copper in a granodiorite-hosted stockwork vein system is a textbook indicator of a magmatic-hydrothermal porphyry rather than a structurally controlled vein deposit, which has implications for both the potential scale of the system and the mineralization style at depth.

Soil sampling across 23 samples on a 100 metre by 100 metre grid returned 70% of samples above 100 ppm copper, suggesting the mineralized footprint extends laterally into an area of approximately 180,000 square metres that has not yet been fully defined. Detailed geological mapping along Creek 1, a 150-metre southwest-to-northeast trending creek section, identified stockwork veining averaging 10 veins per metre -- dense enough to confirm that the system has the structural architecture associated with productive porphyry cores. The dominant quartz-rich Type B veins carrying chalcopyrite, bornite, and pyrite, with sericite alteration halos indicating overprinting phyllic alteration by Type D veins, describe a vertically and laterally zoned porphyry system consistent with the Lowell-Guilbert model.

"These results continue to support our interpretation of Monja as a well-developed copper-gold porphyry system. The consistency of copper values across surface samples, combined with encouraging gold grades and strong veining observed in mapping, provides us with increased confidence in the scale of the system," said Fredy Salazar, President and CEO.

Ecuador's Regulatory and Trade Reset: What It Changes

On July 7, 2026, Ecuador's Board of the Mining Regulation and Control Agency (ARCOM) issued Resolution No. ARCOM-006/26, amending the Mining Oversight and Control Fee regime that had been in effect since 2025. The key provisions are direct: exploration-stage projects are now exempt from the fee entirely, and for the 2026 fiscal year, the fee established under the prior resolution will not be applied to any company.

The significance of this reform is best understood in context. In June 2025, Salazar had publicly cautioned that the then-proposed fee structure would impose an unsustainable burden on exploration companies and would damage Ecuador's attractiveness as a destination for mineral investment. That caution -- made publicly by a company with deep in-country experience and a track record of discovery in Ecuador -- was a serious signal that the fee design was counterproductive. The government's reversal, less than thirteen months later, demonstrates both the responsiveness of Ecuador's current administration to industry input and the direct influence that well-positioned junior companies can have on regulatory outcomes when they engage proactively.

"We welcome this reform, which represents a positive step for Ecuador's exploration-focused mining industry -- and especially for Salazar Resources, a company with significant projects currently in the exploration stage. It will enable us to generate investment, employment, growth, and development in the communities near our projects," said Fredy Salazar, Executive President.

The fee exemption did not arrive in a vacuum. On July 24, 2026, Canada and Ecuador signed a free trade agreement -- a 29-chapter treaty covering trade in goods and services, investment, e-commerce, and dispute settlement. Once ratified, it will eliminate Canadian tariffs on 99.6% of Ecuadorian exportable goods and phase out Ecuadorian tariffs on 97.2% of tariff lines for Canadian-origin products. For Canadian-listed miners, the tariff schedules matter less than the institutional signal: a formal investment-protection and dispute-settlement framework now connects the G7 capital market where Salazar trades with the jurisdiction where every one of its assets sits. Entry into force awaits ratification in both countries -- itself a milestone to watch.

The domestic politics of mining are moving in the same direction. In the first half of 2026, Zamora Chinchipe -- home to Ecuador's two large-scale mines, Fruta del Norte and Mirador -- displaced Azuay to become the country's third-largest tax-contributing province, behind only Pichincha and Guayas, as tax collections from the mining sector nearly doubled year over year. Fruta del Norte itself carries a personal footnote: Salazar Resources founder Fredy Salazar led the exploration team instrumental in Aurelian Resources' 2006 discovery of the deposit, having brought Aurelian to the property and negotiated the original concession -- the same discovery pedigree that later produced El Domo. Legal mining is becoming visible to Ecuadorians as a fiscal pillar rather than a controversy, and that shift in public standing is part of what makes reforms like the ARCOM exemption -- and treaties like the FTA -- politically durable.

El Domo: The Carried Interest Getting More Valuable

The El Domo polymetallic project is held by a joint venture in which Silvercorp Metals holds 75% and serves as operator, and Salazar holds 25% on a fully carried basis through to commercial production. That structure means Silvercorp funds 100% of development and construction costs, with Salazar's share recovered from future production cash flows rather than paid upfront. The mine is under construction with a production target of July 1, 2027.

The July 15 updated technical report by SRK Consulting confirmed an after-tax NPV of US$573 million at an 8% discount rate -- a 121% increase from the US$259 million in the October 2021 feasibility study. At a 5% discount rate the after-tax NPV rises to US$705.6 million. The driver is a combination of higher metal price assumptions -- gold at US$2,600 per ounce versus US$1,700 in 2021, copper at US$9,250 per tonne versus US$7,716 -- and a 10% expansion in Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves to 7.13 million tonnes. Contained metal in reserves grew across every payable element: copper up 10% to 137,700 tonnes, gold up 11% to 584,000 ounces, zinc up 16% to 187,700 tonnes. Mine life extended by approximately 1.5 operating years.

For Salazar, the arithmetic is simple: 25% of the cash flows from a mine with an independently validated after-tax NPV of US$573 million, without having contributed construction capital. Twenty-five percent of that NPV is approximately US$143 million. Salazar's market capitalization in late July 2026 was approximately C$70 million (about US$51 million) on roughly 265 million shares outstanding, with insiders -- including the founding Salazar family -- holding roughly 21% per TMX data, and that is after the shares more than doubled over the trailing twelve months. The company, in other words, was being valued at roughly a third of its share of El Domo's after-tax NPV alone, before assigning any value to its exploration portfolio. An NPV attribution is not a price target and does not convert directly into market value -- but the scale of that gap is the investment question the market has not yet fully answered.

The Wholly Owned Portfolio: Five Projects, One Country, Distinct Systems

Alongside the El Domo carried interest, Salazar holds 100% ownership of five exploration projects in Ecuador assembled through a combination of organic staking and the March 2026 acquisition of the Santiago, Pijilí, and Tarqui-Quimi concessions from Silvercorp (in exchange for a 1.5% net smelter return royalty on each). Each project has a distinct geological identity and a different potential path to value realization.

Monja in Loja Province is the current focus: a copper-gold porphyry where the surface program has now confirmed a mineralized footprint adequate to justify geophysical surveys and drill target definition. Santiago, 37 kilometres north of Loja, hosts a copper-gold porphyry with an untested 3 kilometre by 2 kilometre anomalous zone that has never been drilled. El Tigre, also in Loja Province, delivered results in mid-June 2026 that defined a 650 metre by 500 metre gold-bearing barite horizon -- an epithermal gold system that returned 45 metres at 8.94 g/t gold-equivalent in surface sampling, a result that would attract significant attention in any gold exploration district. Tarqui-Quimi, in southeastern Ecuador, confirmed two complementary mineral systems in June 2026: a large copper-molybdenum porphyry previously drilled by BHP at the Tarqui area, and a high-grade gold-silver epithermal vein system that returned up to 100 g/t gold and 1,000 g/t silver from surface rock chips, while the Quimi area adds copper-gold anomalism that remains to be systematically tested. Pijilí, acquired in the same Silvercorp transaction, is an earlier-stage copper-gold porphyry target that completes the five-project portfolio.

The portfolio is not a collection of grassroots anomalies. Each project carries geological work -- historic drill data at some, surface geochemistry and geophysics at others -- that positions Salazar ahead of the typical first-principles starting point. In a copper and gold price environment that is rewarding early-stage Latin American explorers with discipline and in-country expertise, the combination of a construction-stage carried interest with a five-project 100%-owned exploration pipeline is an unusual value proposition.

The Ecuador Copper-Gold Names Investors Are Watching

Solaris Resources Inc. (TSX: SLS) (NYSE: SLSR)

Solaris is Ecuador's flagship large-scale copper development story and the clearest illustration of how an Ecuadorian copper porphyry can attract institutional financing at scale. Its Warintza project in southeastern Ecuador, with 1.3 billion tonnes of Mineral Reserves and an NPV of US$4.6 billion, received technical approval of its Environmental Impact Assessment on April 9, 2026, triggering access to a US$50 million second tranche under a US$200 million financing package with Royal Gold. The company is targeting a fully permitted Warintza project by end-2026, with shares up approximately 56% year to date as of Q2 2026 and nearly 179% over the trailing twelve months. Solaris demonstrates that Ecuador's copper porphyry endowment can underpin world-class assets and attract the kind of royalty financing that allows development to proceed without dilutive equity raises. The scale difference between Warintza and Monja is enormous, but the jurisdictional proof-of-concept Solaris provides for Ecuador copper porphyry exploration is directly relevant to every early-stage copper explorer in the country.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan is the world's largest publicly traded copper producer and the ultimate benchmark for what porphyry copper development delivers at commercial scale. In Q1 2026, the company reported revenues of $6.23 billion and consolidated copper sales of 657 million pounds. Its Grasberg complex in Indonesia -- the world's largest gold and copper mine by reserve -- is the definitive example of what a high-grade, large-scale porphyry system is worth once it reaches production. While Freeport is an order of magnitude larger than anything in Ecuador's current development pipeline, the company's consistent profitability at elevated copper prices, and its track record of disciplined long-term capital deployment into porphyry systems discovered decades before production, frames the time horizon and value trajectory that investors in early-stage copper porphyry exploration are ultimately working toward. Copper's structural demand story -- driven by electrification, data center buildout, and defense spending -- is the macro context that makes Monja worth finding.

Ero Copper Corp. (TSX: ERO) (NYSE: ERO)

Ero Copper is a mid-tier copper producer with operations in Brazil and a development pipeline that demonstrates what disciplined Latin American copper development looks like at the commercial stage closest to Salazar's carried interest in El Domo. The company operates the MCSA copper-gold mine in Bahia, Brazil, and is ramping up the Tucuma copper project in Para, Brazil, expected to add approximately 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of annual copper production once at full capacity. Ero's total copper production in 2025 was approximately 48,000 tonnes, with all-in sustaining costs well below the current copper price. As a profitable, growing Latin American copper producer with in-country expertise in complex operating environments, Ero illustrates the operational destination that well-managed development projects like El Domo are working toward -- and the kind of cash flow profile that a mid-tier copper producer with low capital intensity can deliver in the current price environment.

Atico Mining Corporation (TSXV: ATY) (OTCQX: ATCMF)

Atico Mining is the most directly comparable structural peer to Salazar's portfolio: a Vancouver-based junior with a producing VMS copper-gold mine in Colombia, a wholly owned VMS development project in Ecuador with a signed Investment Protection Agreement and a recently obtained water permit, and a market capitalization that reflects the gap between production cash flows and exploration-stage valuation. Atico's El Roble mine in the Department of Choco, Colombia, produced approximately 2.09 million pounds of copper in Q1 2026, generating the cash flow that funds the company's Ecuador activities. Its La Plata VMS project in Ecuador -- advancing through permitting with government backing formalized in Investment Agreements signed in 2024 -- represents the same type of wholly owned Ecuadorian development asset that Salazar's exploration portfolio aims to generate, within the same VMS geological context as the El Domo mine that underpins Salazar's carried interest. As a producing, development-stage Latin American copper-gold junior that straddles the Colombia-Ecuador corridor with a VMS-focused strategy, Atico is the closest available operational analogue to the integrated Salazar value proposition. These companies are referenced to illustrate the sector only and do not imply any partnership, endorsement, affiliation, or comparable financial performance.

What to Watch

Three catalysts define Salazar's near-term news calendar. At Monja, the next step is additional infill soil sampling to better define the 180,000 square metre target area, followed by geophysical surveys to identify the most productive drill targets within the confirmed 2 kilometre by 1 kilometre porphyry core. Drill permits and a maiden drill program at Monja would represent the single most important geological milestone in the company's exploration portfolio and would be the first direct test of the system at depth.

At El Domo, the production target of July 1, 2027 is now less than twelve months away. Each month of construction progress by Silvercorp narrows the timeline to cash flows for Salazar's carried interest. Any update on construction status, commissioning progress, or financing milestones from Silvercorp is directly relevant to Salazar's valuation.

And across the broader portfolio, the results from El Tigre and Tarqui-Quimi that have been published in recent months have defined multiple drill-ready targets across different geological systems. For a company that has demonstrated the ability to make discoveries in Ecuador -- the El Domo deposit itself was discovered by the Salazar team -- the combination of a near-construction polymetallic mine and a five-project exploration pipeline in a jurisdiction that, in the space of a single month, exempted explorers from oversight fees and signed a free trade agreement with Canada is a more complete story than any single press release can tell.

CONTINUED... Learn more about Salazar Resources Limited at: https://salazarresources.com

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Article Sources

[1] Salazar Resources Limited -- "Salazar Resources Further Defines Copper-Gold Porphyry Mineralization at Monja Project, Ecuador, with Rock Samples Up To 1.71% Cu and Strong Soil Anomalies" (June 30, 2026; 99 rock samples, 64% >300 ppm Cu, top results 1.71% Cu / 0.99 g/t Au / 162 ppm Mo; 23 soil samples, 70% >100 ppm Cu; Creek 1 mapping 10 veins/m; 1.5 km x 0.5 km mineralized footprint; CEO Fredy Salazar quote; QP Kieran Downes; TSXV: SRL, OTCQB: SRLZF, FSE: CCG).

[2] Salazar Resources Limited -- "Salazar Resources Welcomes Reform Exempting Exploration from the Mining Oversight and Control Fee and Strengthening Ecuador's Competitiveness" (July 7, 2026; ARCOM Resolution No. ARCOM-006/26; exploration-stage exemption; 2026 fiscal year fee waived; Executive President Fredy Salazar quote).

[3] Salazar Resources Limited -- "Salazar Resources Reports El Domo After-Tax NPV (8% Discount Rate) of US$573 Million, Representing a 121% Increase Compared to the October 2021 Feasibility Study" (July 15, 2026; SRK Consulting NI 43-101 technical report; after-tax NPV8% US$573M vs US$259M 2021 FS; NPV5% US$705.6M; P&P Reserves 7.13Mt, +10%; Cu 137,700t +10%, Au 584,000 oz +11%, Zn 187,700t +16%; mine life +1.5 years; gold US$2,600/oz, copper US$9,250/t; 25% Salazar carried interest; production target July 1, 2027).

[4] Salazar Resources Limited -- El Tigre gold-bearing barite horizon (June 16, 2026; 650m x 500m horizon, 45m at 8.94 g/t AuEq surface sampling, Loja Province); Tarqui copper-molybdenum porphyry and high-grade gold-silver epithermal vein (June 1, 2026; up to 100 g/t Au and 1,000 g/t Ag, BHP-drilled copper porphyry); Santiago 100% ownership consolidation (April 22, 2026; 3 km x 2 km anomalous zone, untested porphyry core).

[5] Solaris Resources Inc. -- EIA technical approval for Warintza Project, Ecuador (April 9, 2026); US$50M second tranche unlocked under US$200M Royal Gold financing package; fully permitted Warintza targeted end-2026; 1.3 billion tonnes Mineral Reserves; NPV US$4.6 billion; shares +56% YTD Q2 2026, +179% trailing 12 months; TSX: SLS, NYSE: SLSR.

[6] Freeport-McMoRan Inc. -- Q1 2026 results (April 23, 2026): revenues $6.23B; consolidated copper sales 657 million pounds; net income attributable to common stock $881M; Grasberg complex, Indonesia; NYSE: FCX.

[7] Ero Copper Corp. -- MCSA copper-gold mine (Bahia, Brazil); Tucuma copper project (Para, Brazil) ramp-up to approximately 30,000-40,000 tonnes annual copper production; 2025 total copper production approximately 48,000 tonnes; TSX: ERO, NYSE: ERO.

[8] Atico Mining Corporation -- Q1 2026 operating results (April 28, 2026; El Roble mine production 2.09 million pounds Cu, Q1 2026); La Plata VMS project, Ecuador (Investment Protection Agreement September 2025, water permit October 2025); financial results FY 2025 (April 23, 2026); TSXV: ATY, OTCQX: ATCMF.

[9] Government of Canada, Global Affairs Canada -- "Canada and Ecuador sign a free trade agreement" (July 24, 2026; 29 chapters; elimination of Canadian tariffs on 99.6% of Ecuadorian exportable goods and phase-out of Ecuadorian tariffs on 97.2% of tariff lines upon entry into force; ratification pending in both countries).

[10] Servicio de Rentas Internas data as reported by Primicias and Expreso (Ecuador), July 2026 -- Zamora Chinchipe becomes Ecuador's third-largest tax-collecting province in H1 2026, behind Pichincha and Guayas, displacing Azuay; mining-sector tax collections nearly doubled year over year; Fruta del Norte and Mirador mines located in the province.

[11] Market and share-structure data: TMX Money and Yahoo Finance Canada, as of late July 2026 (approximately 265.1 million shares outstanding; market capitalization approximately C$70 million; trailing-twelve-month appreciation approximately 117%, from C$0.12 to C$0.26; insider ownership approximately 21.3%).

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Qualified Person and Technical Disclosure. The scientific and technical information in this article concerning the Curipamba–El Domo project is derived from disclosure by Salazar Resources Limited and from the independent NI 43-101 technical report prepared by SRK Consulting (China) Ltd. for Silvercorp Metals Inc., effective December 31, 2025. Mr. Falong Hu (FAusIMM), a qualified person under NI 43-101 who is independent of Salazar, reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the company’s news release. Market Equities has not independently verified, and is not qualified to verify, the company’s scientific or technical disclosure; readers should refer to the company’s filed technical report and news releases for the complete data, assumptions, and qualified-person statements.

Cautionary Note Regarding the Technical Report and Project Economics. The Curipamba–El Domo project is under construction and is not in production; Salazar holds a 25% carried interest and does not operate the project. The net present value, resource and reserve estimates, grades, mine life, production timing, and metal-price assumptions described are estimates drawn from a technical report and do not represent realized results or cash flow; there is no certainty they will be achieved. Comparisons of Salazar’s market capitalization to a percentage of project NPV are illustrative arithmetic only and are not a valuation of Salazar or its carried interest, nor a price target. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability, and inferred mineral resources are too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them. Statements regarding first production in 2027, additional mineralized material, potential mine-life extension, future cash flow, and the entry into force of the Canada-Ecuador free trade agreement are forward-looking and subject to construction, permitting, operating, commodity-price, and jurisdictional risks in Ecuador. References to other companies, including Silvercorp Metals, Lundin Mining, Southern Copper, Solaris Resources, Freeport-McMoRan, Ero Copper, and Atico Mining, are for market and sector context only; those companies differ substantially from Salazar in size, stage, and structure, are not peers, competitors, or comparables, and their performance is not indicative of Salazar’s prospects. Silvercorp Metals is the operator and 75% owner of the El Domo project and is therefore a related party to the project rather than an independent comparable. All third-party figures are approximate and subject to change. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties; readers should not place undue reliance on them.

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