Hot Chili boosts Chilean copper-gold potential

Copper developer Hot Chili continues to pump out some stellar drill results from its Cortadera copper-gold porphyry deposit in Chile as the company expands the shallow resources at its Cuerpo 1 and Cuerpo 2 deposits.

Recent assay results include a massive 156 metre hit grading 0.4 per cent copper equivalent from surface. It incorporates 32m at a higher grade 0.6 per cent copper equivalent from 90m depth, made up of 0.5 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold.

Another hole gave up a 72m intersection grading 0.4 per cent copper equivalent from surface and included 28m at 0.7 per cent copper equivalent.

In total all 5 of the recently tabled holes were mineralised for over 60m, with the best of them mineralized right from surface all the way down to 156m

Hot Chili recently ramped up exploration drilling across its Productora central porphyry target with several large copper-gold targets scheduled for testing this year. It embarked on an initial 20,000m exploration drilling campaign last month to test several prioritised, large copper-gold targets within its combined Costa Fuego landholdings in Chile.

Additionally, the company is finalising three months of assay results from Cortadera in advance of a major resource upgrade in the first quarter of this year after it clocked up an eye-watering 46,000m of drilling in 2021.

We commence the year with $34 million in treasury, 100 percent ownership of Cortadera, Glencore as a strategic investor and our Company now consolidated and dual-listed in Canada.

A resource upgrade this quarter and a combined pre-feasibility study in the third quarter will position Costa Fuego as a production front-runner in the senior copper development space this year. In addition, we have kicked off our next phase of growth, with first drilling well underway across the first of several large exploration targets we will be testing this year, all capable of materially lifting the scale and economics of Costa Fuego even further.

Three of eight first-pass reverse circulation drill holes are complete from the freshly launched Productora drilling program with several diamond hole extensions planned once the RC drill results are received. Additional drill targets at Productora, Santiago Z and El Fuego, all located within the consolidated Costa Fuego tenure, are also scheduled to see the drill bit over the coming months and the company has received regulatory approval for platform clearing at Santiago Z.

Drilling is also planned across multiple extensional targets located outside of the Cortadera resource window. The priority targets have been selected based on their potential to add further bulk tonnage scale to the Costa Fuego development or alternatively, provide higher grade ore sources for early production.

The wholly owned Cortadera copper-gold deposit is the centrepiece of the company’s development portfolio and Hot Chili believes it to be one of the most significant copper-gold discoveries of the past decade. It contains a whopping 1.66 million tonnes of copper and 1.9 million ounces of gold grading 0.37 per cent copper and 0.13 g/t gold.

The porphyry-copper-gold deposits extend for a strike length of 2.3km to a depth of 1km and comprise of the Cuerpo 1, Cuerpo 2, Cuerpo 3 and Cuerpo 4 deposits. Within the overall Cortadera resource estimate, the Cuerpo 3 deposit’s high-grade core currently stands at 104 million tonnes at a copper equivalent grade averaging 0.74 per cent. The Cuerpo 2 deposit recorded some of the highest-grade copper results in the recent drill campaign that successfully delineated zones of shallow mineralisation within the oxidised weathering zone.

Hot Chili expects to tick off some milestone targets this year including a global mineral resource upgrade and a pre-feasibility study for Costa Fuego, in addition to an off-take agreement with Glencore for 60 per cent of the first 8 years of production. The sheer scale of the Cortadera resource should make market watchers take note with 2022 shaping up to be an exciting year for Hot Chili following an impressive 2021.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au