News

Hot Chili turns up the heat at La Verde as high-grade copper and gold core continues to grow

• Hot Chili has expanded the high-grade core of its La Verde copper and gold porphyry discovery in Chile, with two diamond drill holes returning wide and near-surface intercepts
• Assays from six other holes remain pending, including two holes visually interpreted to host strong copper porphyry mineralisation
• La Verde could potentially enhance the financial metrics of a PFS for the company’s proposed Costa Fuego production hub, located some 30km away

Special Report: Hot Chili has expanded the high-grade core of its La Verde copper and gold porphyry discovery in Chile, with one hole from its Phase 2 diamond drilling campaign returning 495m at 0.38% copper and 0.10g/t gold from just 3m depth.

This intercept also included a richer 123m interval grading 0.5% copper and 0.13g/t gold from 289m.

Another hole returned 426m at 0.37% copper and 0.08g/t gold from 194m. It also featured a 52m zone grading 0.5% copper from 566m.

Both holes ended in mineralisation.

These results build on assays from the first diamond drill hole of the Phase 2 campaign, which recently returned 529m at 0.41% copper and 0.21g/t gold from 41m.

Hot Chili managing director Christian Easterday said that “the reporting of wide, near-surface, copper-gold intercepts from a new major discovery underscores the strategic significance of La Verde to Hot Chili”.

Assays from six other diamond holes remain pending, including two holes visually interpreted to host strong copper porphyry mineralisation directly above La Verde’s higher-grade copper core.

The Phase 2 campaign follows Hot Chili’s (ASX:HCH) first-pass reverse circulation drill program at La Verde, which confirmed a significant copper footprint measuring 1000m by 750m and stretching up to 400m vertical depth.

Here, a discovery hole in late 2024 returned 308m at 0.5% copper and 0.3g/t gold from 46m.

The bigger picture

The La Verde tenure forms part of the company’s Costa Fuego project. It sits about 30km south of a planned central processing hub in the coastal range of the Atacama region.

At present, Costa Fuego hosts three mineral resources situated within a 10 km radius: Productora, Cortadera, and San Antonio.

These three deposits combine for an indicated resource totalling 798Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent.

A recent PFS gauging the merits of building a mine at Costa Fuego estimated a 20-year mine life.

The company’s modelling now suggests that additional open-pit material from La Verde could potentially be added to the front end of the 20-year schedule for Costa Fuego.

In turn, La Verde could deliver mine-life growth and materially enhance the financial metrics of the PFS.

Watch: See what Hot Chili has planned for this year

Commodity prices on the up

Management also noted that Costa Fuego is significantly leveraged to copper and gold prices, both of which are materially higher than used in the PFS.

According to Hot Chili, long-term consensus prices come in at US$4.51 per pound for copper and US$3137 per ounce for gold – 5% and 38% higher than used in the PFS, respectively.

Furthermore, the price of gold recently reached a fresh all-time high, topping US$4600 per ounce for the first time.

Copper also reached record highs at the start of this year. It’s currently trading just shy of US$6 per pound.

The latest La Verde drill results appear to further amplify Hot Chili’s exposure to rising commodity prices.