By 
Issued on behalf of Salazar Resources Limited (TSX-V: SRL)
In the span of a week, an updated technical report more than doubled the after-tax value of Salazar Resources' flagship asset, and Ecuador's mining regulator handed the country's explorers a tax break, two developments pointing the same direction for a junior with a fully carried stake in a copper-gold mine now under construction.
VANCOUVER, BC, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Equity Insider News Commentary - For a junior mining company, there are two ways to create value: prove your rocks are worth more, and lower the cost of looking for more of them. In the space of eight days in July 2026, Salazar Resources managed both. First, an independent updated technical report on its flagship copper-gold project lifted the after-tax net present value by 121% against the study that preceded it. Then, Ecuador's mining regulator exempted exploration-stage projects from a fee that the industry had warned was a drag on investment. For a company whose entire model is built on holding carried interests in Ecuadorian discoveries, both moves land squarely in its favor.
Key Takeaways
Salazar Resources Limited (TSX-V: SRL) (OTCQB: SRLZF) reported an updated after-tax NPV (8% discount) of US$573 million for the Curipamba–El Domo project, a 121% increase over the October 2021 Feasibility Study, on its fully carried 25% interest.
Ecuador's mining regulator, ARCOM, issued a reform exempting exploration-stage projects from the Mining Oversight and Control Fee, a change Salazar publicly welcomed as improving the country's competitiveness for exploration capital.
The broader copper-gold sector is running hot, with Silvercorp Metals (TSX: SVM), Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN), Southern Copper (NYSE: SCCO), and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) all drawing capital as copper prices climb.
A Flagship Asset, Revalued Sharply Higher
Salazar Resources Limited (TSX-V: SRL) (OTCQB: SRLZF) (Frankfurt: CCG.F) reported an update on the Curipamba–El Domo polymetallic project in the Bolívar and Los Ríos provinces of Ecuador, based on an independent NI 43-101 technical report prepared by SRK Consulting (China) Ltd. for the project operator, Silvercorp Metals Inc., with an effective date of December 31, 2025. Salazar holds a 25% carried interest in the project; Silvercorp holds the remaining 75% and serves as operator.
The headline figure is the one that matters most to shareholders. The updated study places the project's after-tax net present value at US$573 million using an 8% discount rate, a 121% increase compared with the October 2021 Feasibility Study. At a less conservative 5% discount rate, the after-tax NPV rises to US$705.6 million. Those are project-level figures; Salazar's economic exposure is its 25% carried share, but the direction and magnitude of the revaluation flow directly through to that stake.
The revaluation was driven by more metal and better assumptions. Measured and indicated mineral resources rose 27%, from 9 million tonnes to 11.4 million tonnes, grading 1.85% copper, 2.11 g/t gold, 2.42% zinc, 0.22% lead, and 41.69 g/t silver. Inferred resources jumped 245%, from 1.1 million tonnes to 3.8 million tonnes. Proven and probable mineral reserves increased 10% to 7.13 million tonnes, with contained metal rising across every payable metal: copper up 10%, gold up 11%, zinc up 16%, lead up 14%, and silver up 15%. Higher metal-price assumptions, reflecting the market that has developed since 2021, brought additional material into the economic envelope.
"The new economic analysis in the 2025 Technical Report significantly upgrades our flagship asset, directly benefiting every Salazar Resources shareholder," said Fredy Salazar, CEO of Salazar Resources. "With construction on track, and first production expected in 2027, El Domo is transitioning from study to cash generation. Through our fully carried 25% interest, shareholders gain exposure to a producing copper-gold asset without further development funding, positioning the Company for a durable future cash flow stream."
Why "Carried" Is the Word That Matters
The structure of Salazar's interest is central to the investment case. A 25% carried interest means Salazar is not responsible for funding its share of construction and development costs; the operator carries those costs through to commercial production. In practical terms, the company gains exposure to the upside of a copper-gold mine now under construction without having to raise and spend capital to build it, and without the dilution that funding a quarter of a mine's construction would typically force on a junior's shareholders.
The project is fully funded and under construction, with first commercial concentrate production expected in mid-2027. The mine plan outlines a 13-year mine life processing 666,000 tonnes of material per year. The updated study also flagged roughly 8 million tonnes of additional mineralized material sitting in the measured, indicated, and inferred categories outside the current reserve, which the company describes as upside with the potential to extend mine life as it is advanced toward reserve classification. For a carried partner, additional mine life is additional cash flow at no incremental cost.
Ecuador Sweetens the Ground for Explorers
The second development of the week was regulatory rather than geological, but it speaks directly to the other half of Salazar's business: its portfolio of 100%-owned copper-gold exploration projects in Ecuador. On July 7, 2026, the company welcomed a reform issued by Ecuador's Mining Regulation and Control Agency, ARCOM, through Resolution No. ARCOM-006/26, which exempts projects that remain in the exploration stage from the Mining Oversight and Control Fee. For the 2026 fiscal year, the fee established under the previous resolution will not be applied at all.
The context matters. Salazar had publicly cautioned in 2025 that the then-proposed fee would place an unsustainable burden on exploration companies and dent Ecuador's attractiveness as a mining-investment destination. The reform addresses that concern directly, removing an economic cost from the phases that precede production. For a company running exploration-stage projects, the exemption is a straightforward reduction in the cost of carrying and advancing that ground.
"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," said Fredy Salazar. He framed it as enabling the company to generate investment, employment, and development in the communities near its projects. The move brings Ecuador closer to the practices of established mining jurisdictions and, the company argues, strengthens its ability to attract international risk capital.
The Copper-Gold Names Riding the Same Wave
Salazar's news lands in a copper market that has turned sharply higher. Copper futures have rallied through July 2026 as the International Copper Study Group flipped its 2026 forecast from surplus to deficit, citing mine delays in Chile and Peru, and the equities have moved even faster than the metal. The companies below span the spectrum from El Domo's own operator to the global copper majors, and all are being pulled along by the same current. They are referenced for market and sector context only and differ substantially from Salazar in size, stage, and structure.
Silvercorp Metals (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM)
Silvercorp Metals is the most directly connected name to Salazar's story, because it is the operator and 75% owner of El Domo itself. A profitable silver-lead-zinc producer in China, Silvercorp acquired its El Domo stake through the 2024 acquisition of Adventus Mining and is using the project to diversify into copper-gold production in South America. It commissioned the updated SRK technical report that revalued the project, filed its 2026 Form 40-F in June, and carries an analyst consensus around a Strong Buy with a price target implying substantial upside from its recent level near C$13.50. Because Silvercorp funds and operates the mine that Salazar is carried on, its execution is directly relevant to when and how Salazar's carried interest begins generating cash. It is a project partner rather than an arm's-length peer, and should be read in that light.
Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN)
Lundin Mining is the Latin American base-metals benchmark and, like Salazar and Silvercorp, is headquartered in Vancouver. It operates copper-gold assets across Chile, Brazil, and Argentina and is advancing the transformative Vicña district alongside a major partner. Lundin reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of roughly US$1.2 billion with a strong EBITDA margin, and analysts broadly rate it a Buy. Lundin illustrates what a diversified, producing copper-gold company built on Latin American geology looks like at scale, the tier that developing assets like El Domo aspire to feed into, and its scale and jurisdiction mix make it a useful reference point for how the market values copper-gold exposure in the region.
Southern Copper (NYSE: SCCO)
Southern Copper is one of the largest copper producers in Latin America, with long-life operations in Peru and Mexico and one of the industry's largest reserve bases. In the July 2026 copper rally its shares jumped sharply in a single session, outpacing the move in the metal itself, a reminder of the operating leverage a producer carries when copper prices rise. Southern Copper's Peru growth pipeline also underscores the same regional-supply story that makes new, permitted copper development in stable Latin American jurisdictions strategically valuable. It represents the large-cap, dividend-paying end of the copper spectrum, far removed from a junior like Salazar in scale, but exposed to the same commodity tailwind.
Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX)
Freeport-McMoRan is the copper-gold bellwether that investors most often use to express a view on copper itself. Operating the world-class Grasberg mine in Indonesia alongside major assets in the Americas, Freeport produced billions of pounds of copper in 2025 and accounts for a large share of U.S. refined copper output. Its shares also rose sharply during the July 2026 rally as copper futures climbed on the shift to a forecast supply deficit. Freeport is the name that sets the tone for copper-equity sentiment broadly, and when it moves the way it has recently, capital tends to flow down the market-cap ladder toward developers and juniors with credible copper-gold exposure, the category Salazar is positioned within through El Domo.
Two Tailwinds, One Direction
What makes the past week notable for Salazar is not any single announcement but the way two very different developments point the same way. A sharply higher project valuation strengthens the asset the company is already carried into, while a regulatory change lowers the cost of the exploration portfolio it hopes will generate the next one. Both arrive against a copper backdrop that has rarely looked tighter, with a forecast supply deficit and equities re-rating across the sector.
The risks remain real and specific: El Domo is under construction and not yet in production, the economic figures are estimates drawn from a technical report rather than realized cash flow, and Salazar's returns depend on an operator it does not control, in a jurisdiction whose regulatory and political environment carries its own history. But for a junior offering carried exposure to a copper-gold mine targeting first production in 2027, in a country that just moved to make exploration cheaper, the setup entering the second half of 2026 is a materially stronger one than it was a week earlier.
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