By The Assay – TSX Edition 2022 | June 2022

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Hot Chili Limited Big Cision in Big Copper – The Assay – TSX Edition 2022

Copper explorer ticks all the boxes key for successful large-scale-mine development

After battling to get market recognition on the Australia Stock Exchange, Hot Chili Ltd. has just completed a $34 million TSX.V initial public offering (TSXV: HCH, OTC: HHLKF) that will garner North American eyes on this evolving copper story.

There’s lots to like about Hot Chili. The company, which once traded at a high of A$37.00 on the ASX (2011), has plenty of good reasons for its stock to begin migrating back up toward historical highs. They’ve just announced a resource estimate that renders the flagship Costa Fuego project one of the world’s top 10 largest copper inventories not controlled by a major mining company and will have a pre-feasibility study in hand by the end of 2022, a definitive feasibility in 2024 and be producing copper by 2026.

The good news starts with the new resource estimate upgrade just announced that makes Hot Chili a standout copper resource holder on the TSX.V.  927Mt grading 0.45% CuEq for 4.1Mt of copper equivalent metal (3.3Mt copper, 2.9Moz gold, 12Moz silver and 81kt molybdenum).  Importantly, over 80% of Costa Fuego’s resource is classified as Indicated and over one third of the metal grades approximately 0.8%CuEq, and can be accessed by shallow open pit mining.

“The past year has been transformational in terms of reshaping the company. We’ve consolidated our capital structure and completed the exhaustive process of listing on the TSX.V and put ourselves amongst the senior copper developers in the world that have enjoyed significant appreciation with the copper prices going up,” says Christian Ervin Easterday, managing director and CEO of Hot Chili Ltd.

Hot Chili is developing the Costa Fuego project, a copper hub comprising two major deposits—the 100%-owned Cortadera porphyry deposit and neighbouring 80%-owned Productora porphyry-related breccia deposit. The most recent resource upgrade has also included the addition of the close-by, high grade, San Antonio deposit (4.2Mt grading 1.2% CuEq). While the company has been advancing Productora over the better part of the last decade (including a 2016 PFS), the resource potential took a step-change with the addition of the previously privately-owned Cortadera porphyry discovery in 2019.

“We have consolidated our copper deposits to form the Costa Fuego Copper Project – a major copper mining hub located on the Chilean coastal range. The centerpiece of our Chilean copper mining portfolio is the Cortadera porphyry deposit, regarded as one of the most significant copper-gold discoveries of the past decade in Chile,” says Christian Ervin Easterday, managing director of Hot Chili Ltd.

The Company’s profile is further bolstered by the location of the Costa Fuego project at low elevations (less than 1,000m elevation) in Chile’s coastal range, unique amongst senior copper developers in the America’s which are more used to high altitude locations – typically above 3,000m elevation in the high Andes.  Costa Fuego is situated almost 600 kilometres north of Santiago, next to the Pan American highway, with access to the power grid and 50 kilometres from the port of Las Losas.  Additionally, Hot Chili has surface rights and easements to establish a sea water pipeline and power transmission lines. Also unique is that Hot Chili has a maritime concession, water license, which was approved in December 2020 – a critical element of any project development in the world, not least of all in Chile’s Atacama region.

Global copper demand on the rise

Without new capital investments, Commodities Research Unit (CRU) predicts global copper mined production will drop from 20 million tonnes to below 12 million tonnes by 2034, leading to a supply shortfall of more than 15 million tonnes. Over 200 copper mines are expected to run out of ore before 2035, with not enough new mines in the pipeline to take their place.

Some of the largest copper mines are seeing their reserves dwindle; have to dramatically slow production due to major capital-intensive projects to move operations from open pit to underground. Examples include the world’s two largest copper mines, Escondida in Chile and Grasberg in Indonesia, along with Chuquicamata, the biggest open pit mine on Earth.

These cuts are significant to the global copper market because Chile is the world’s biggest copper-producing nation — supplying 30% of the world’s red metal. Adding insult to injury, copper grades have declined about 25% in Chile over the last decade, bringing less ore to market.

By 2020, the international industry’s head grade was 30% lower than in 2001, and the capital cost per tonne of annual production had surged four-fold during that time — both classic signs of depletion. According to the Goehring & Rozencwajg model, the industry is “approaching the lower limits of cut-off grades,” and brownfield expansions for many of the major copper miners are no longer a viable solution.

“Projects of the scale of Costa Fuego are hard to find. But they’re even harder to find at low altitude, sitting in the middle of infrastructure in one of the top three mining countries of the world. I think what most people don’t know is that over the past two decades head grades for copper have dropped to about half a percent from 1.6 percent copper and now it’s all about economy of scale and that’s the space we are in,” says Ervin Easterday.

Lower grades and increased demand shine a light on the importance of making new discoveries in establishing a sustainable copper supply chain. Over the past 10 years, greenfield additions to copper reserves have slowed dramatically, with tonnage from new discoveries falling by 80% since 2010—something that can’t be changed overnight.

Some of the world’s largest copper companies are doing everything they can to expand existing mines and acquire prospective new deposits, as they seek to replace their rapidly depleting copper reserves and resources.

But it takes many years to bring a copper deposit into production, even for the majors moving from open pit to underground. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the average lead time from first discovery to first metal has increased by four years from previous cycles, to almost 14 years. In places like the United States and Canada, where miners face strict permitting regulations that can cause significant delays, it’s not unusual for a copper mine to take 20 years to develop.

“I guess you could say we are ahead of the crowd being 12 years into our journey already. There are few copper developers of our scale that have the near-term timelines to production we do,” says ErvinEasterday, who credits the recent Glencore investment on the Company’s advanced exploration and development, project scale and clean concentrate potential (no arsenic).

Vote of confidence from Glencore

Glencore became Hot Chili’s largest shareholder after a series of investments in 2021 where Glencore took a 9.96 percent stake. It also won a seat at the board in the form of Mark Jamieson and further management in the form of participation on the technical steering committee, positions it can hold onto as long as Glencore keeps a minimum 7.5 per cent stake in the company. The investment was backed up recently when Glencore agreed to an eight year off-take agreement to purchase 60 percent of the copper concentrate from Hot Chili’s Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile.

“We ensured project financing flexibility with 40 percent of our first eight years of concentrate production remaining uncommitted ahead of initiating project financing discussions in 2022, following completion of the Costa Fuego Pre-Feasibility Study. Glencore’s expertise and support is welcomed and is an important part of our strategy to transform the company into a material copper-gold producer.  It is unique to have one of the world’s largest miners as a major shareholder and off-take partner in advance of a PFS” says Ervin Easterday.

Boosting its international capability even further, Hot Chili recently appointed Dr Nicole Adshead-Bell as the company’s independent, non-executive chairman, after she joined the board in January. Residing in Canada, Dr Adshead-Bell has 25 years of technical and investment banking experience across the capital markets and resource sectors and sits on the boards of Toronto-listed Altius Minerals and ASX-listed Matador Mining.

Lots of exploration upside

Fresh with a world-class resource estimate, which is fast approaching 1 billion tonnes, and pre-feasibility in the works, there are no signs of Hot Chili resting on their laurels.

“Now that we have a strong treasury of $30 to $40 million, this year is also about growing our resources from within. We are moving with a series of drill holes on some of the larger scale un-drilled targets on the property,” says Ervin Easterday.

The last word

“I know there is some frustration with retail investors wondering just like myself, how a company holding an asset of the size, quality, location, infrastructure advantage and attracting the attention of one of the top three miners in the world would have a market capitalization at about a fifth of what it probably should be. That frustration is well understood, but we have not shied away from making important decisions. What we are doing her is putting together a 20-to-30-year mine plan on something that has the potential to produce upwards of $US1 billion in revenue annually on long-term copper prices. In addition, we are de-risking our project, and as we hit our catalysts and milestones over the next year, I’m sure the market will look after itself – value will always eventually rise to the top” says Ervin Easterday.

Hot Chili is determined to commission the Cortadera copper gold project by 2026, a time frame that would be the envy of most mining majors. Now with a locked in offtake agreement with Glencore and the further upside to its resource base, it appears Hot Chili will hit the ground running this year.

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Hot Chili Ltd hits the ground running

Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) (TSXV:HCH) (OTCQB: HHLKF) has released a major resource upgrade for its coastal range, Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile.

 Costa Fuego comprises the Cortadera, Productora and San Antonio deposits, all of which have updated Mineral Resource Estimates (MRE) and lie proximal to one another at low-altitude elevations (800m to 1,000m), 600km north of Santiago.

The resource upgrade follows 18 months of material investment, including completion of 52,000 metres of additional resource drilling at Cortadera, purchase of 100% of the Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery and execution of an offtake agreement with Glencore for future concentrate production (60% for the first eight years). The Cortadera MRE has delivered the majority of resource growth for Costa Fuego.

Cortadera is defined by over 92,000m of drilling and contains an Indicated resource of 471Mt grading 0.46% CuEq (previously 183Mt grading 0.49% CuEq) and an Inferred resource of 108Mt grading 0.35% CuEq (previously 267Mt grading 0.44% CuEq).

Cortadera’s Indicated resource has grown by 134% and is now able to be studied for conversion into ore reserves in the Company’s Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), forecast for Q3, 2022.

The Productora MRE has been re-estimated following review of the 2016 MRE, completion of underground mine development and exploration drilling in 2021.

The review and subsequent resource re-estimation has resulted in a material increase in high grade Indicated resources reported above 0.6% CuEq.

 High grade open pit resources from Productora are a key focus for the combined PFS and are expected to feature prominently in the early mine schedule for Costa Fuego.

A maiden San Antonio MRE has also been added to the Costa Fuego Hub. San Antonio was historically exploited by small-scale underground mining of high-grade copper. The maiden resource estimate utilised an underground drone survey (increasing the spatial confidence of historic mining activities) and 4,922 metres of drilling undertaken by Hot Chili in 2018.

Managing Director Christian Easterday said the company is encouraged by the initial Inferred resource of 4.2Mt grading 1.2% CuEq.

The high-grade, shallow nature of San Antonio provides an additional open pittable deposit for Costa Fuego’s potential early mine schedule. Further resource upgrade drilling is planned at San Antonio and the nearby Valentina high-grade deposit in the coming months.

 “I would like to thank our entire team who have delivered this very strong result on-time and within guidance – elevating Costa Fuego’s position amongst the largest undeveloped copper projects in the world,” Mr Easterday said:

“The world is hungry for advanced, low-risk, senior copper developments with near-term production potential.

“Copper prices are driving higher and new meaningful copper supply is fast becoming a mirage.

“Hot Chili is well positioned to deliver into this forecast supply gap and contribute to the decarbonisation super cycle, particularly due to Costa Fuego’s lower economic hurdle resulting from its low elevation location and proximity to existing infrastructure; including abundant grid power with high renewables contributions.

“We are fully funded for 18 months and on-track to deliver our next resource upgrade and PFS later this year as we transform Costa Fuego into one of the world’s next material copper mines.”

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Hot Chili Heating Up With Surge To Next Level Of Growth

Hot Chili has reinforced its Costa Fuego copper-gold hub’s position as a top tier development project after upgrading its higher confidence Indicated Resource by a massive 67%.

The upgraded Costa Fuego now features an Indicated Resource of 725 million tonnes grading 0.47% copper equivalent, or contained resources totalling 2.8Mt of copper, 2.6 million ounces of gold, 10.5Moz of silver and 67,000t of molybdenum.

This is more than 80% of its total resource and includes a higher grade Indicated Resource of 156Mt at 0.79% copper equivalent with contained resources of 1Mt of copper, 850,000oz of gold, 2.9Moz of silver and 24,000t of molybdenum – more than a third of the total contained resource.

The resource upgrade is another sign that Hot Chili’s (ASX:HCH) plans are coming together in a spectacular fashion, as it follows on the back of a key offtake agreement that will see Glencore buy 60% of the project’s copper concentrate production for an eight-year period at “arm’s-length commercially-competitive” terms.

Managing director Christian Easterday said the resource upgrade elevates Costa Fuego’s position amongst the largest undeveloped copper projects in the world.

“The world is hungry for advanced, low-risk, senior copper developments with near-term production potential. Copper prices are driving higher and new meaningful copper supply is fast becoming a mirage,” he noted.

“Hot Chili is well positioned to deliver into this forecast supply gap and contribute to the decarbonisation super cycle, particularly due to Costa Fuego’s lower economic hurdle resulting from its low elevation location and proximity to existing infrastructure; including abundant grid power with high renewables contributions.

“We are fully funded for 18 months and on-track to deliver our next resource upgrade and PFS later this year as we transform Costa Fuego into one of the world’s next material copper mines.”

Resource upgrade

The Costa Fuego upgrade is the culmination of 18 months of material investment, which included the completion of 52,000m of additional resource drilling at the Cortadera project – the main engine of growth for Costa Fuego.

Cortadera now has an Indicated resource of 471Mt grading 0.46% copper equivalent, a 134% increase over its previous estimate of 183Mt at 0.49% copper equivalent.

And there’s room for further growth with Costa Fuego hosting an Inferred Resource of 202Mt at 0.36% copper equivalent, or contained metals totalling 600,000t of copper, 400,000oz of gold, 2Moz of silver and 13,000t of molybdenum.

This includes a high-grade maiden resource of 4.2Mt at 1.2% copper equivalent at the San Antonio deposit, which represents an additional open pittable deposit for Costa Fuego’s potential early mine schedule.

Hot Chili is also planning to carry out further resource upgrade drilling at San Antonio and the nearby Valentina high grade deposit in the coming months.

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Hot Chili resource upgrade launches Costa Fuego copper-gold to new heights

Cortadera’s North Flank Delivers Wide Copper Hits

Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) (OTCQB: HHLKF) has unveiled that recent drill results from its Cortadera copper-gold discovery in Chile continue to demonstrate strong resource growth.

Hot Chili’s Resource Development Manager Kirsty Sheerin said the expansion of the main porphyry was very pleasing ahead of the company’s plans to up-grade the maiden 451Mt Cortadera resource. “The North Flank of the high-grade core to the main porphyry has continued to be a significant resource addition,” Sheerin said.

“We have added approximately 170m of width to Cuerpo 3 and hope to extend several other open flanks to the high-grade core by year-end. “We are also continuing to see positive shallow intersections in the current RC drilling program at Cuerpo 2.

“The next resource upgrade at Cortadera will provide a strong basis for the first combined open pit and block cave mining reserve estimate at our growing Costa Fuego copper-gold development.” Cuerpo 3 North Flank Confirmed as Extensive High-Grade Addition

Continued strong results have been reported from extensional resource drilling across the North Flank to the high-grade core of the main porphyry (Cuerpo 3) at Cortadera.

CRP0134D returned an extensive intersection of 610m grading 0.5% CuEq (0.4% copper (Cu), 0.1g/t gold (Au)) from 216m depth down-hole, including 138m grading 0.8% CuEq (0.6% Cu, 0.1g/t Au) from 634m depth.

Importantly, the high-grade results in CRP0134D were recorded at approximately the same vertical depth and lateral to CRP0124D, which recorded 82m grading 1.0% CuEq (0.7% Cu and 0.3g/t Au) within a broader intersection of 362m grading 0.6% CuEq (0.5% Cu, 0.2g/t Au) from 634m depth.

This recent drilling has demonstrated strong continuity of high grade (+0.7% CuEq) mineralisation and extended the North Flank by approximately 170m. A follow-up hole (CRP0155D) is currently underway to extend the North Flank by a further 80m. CRP0155D is currently at 490m depth and is in mineralisation.

Expansion of Shallow Resources at Cortadera

Initial results have been returned for 5 shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes at Cuerpo 2. The results have extended the boundary of the resource across the southern, eastern and north eastern flanks of Cuerpo 2.

In addition, CRP0139 was drilled in an up-dip position over the Cuerpo 2 resource and has recorded a 42m intersection grading 0.5% CuEq (0.4% Cu, 0.3g/t Au) from 180m depth to end-of-hole, within a broader 222m zone grading 0.3% CuEq (0.2% Cu, 0.1g/t Au) from surface.

The result of CRP0139 has shown an upgrade in both copper and gold from the maiden resource model in this area. Assay results are pending for a further five drill holes which have recorded wide zones of oxide and sulphide mineralisation from surface.

Additional RC drilling is continuing in this area to determine the potential for this shallow mineralisation to extend further.

 Momentum Building Ahead of Canadian TSXV Dual-Listing

Hot Chili is currently the only major copper-gold developer in the America’s that is not listed in Canada. The Company’s low-altitude Costa Fuego copper-gold development in Chile is expected to compare favourably to leading copper-gold developers in Canada, which currently trade at many multiples of Hot Chili’s market capitalisation.

The Company plans to continue building momentum with its activities and news flow ahead of its dual listing on the TSXV in Q4 this year, with several updates expected from ongoing drilling, exploration and development workstreams. Hot Chili is operating five shifts of drilling per day with three drill rigs at Cortadera.

In addition, a fourth drill rig is being sourced to commence drill testing several large-scale growth targets.

Following its dual listing in Canada, Hot Chili aims to release a major resource upgrade from Cortadera followed by the completion of a combined Pre-feasibility study.

These two major milestones will lay the foundation for the company’s transformation into a major copper-gold producer in the coming years.

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The Assay – Hot Chili Warming Up In Chile

Improved Moly Returns In Latest XRF Results

Hot Chili Limited (ASX:HCH) says evidence is building toward the potential for the Cortadera project to be part of larger regional copper porphyry cluster on the Chilean coastal range.

New soil results and mapping have confirmed a large copper porphyry footprint measuring over 4km in length and 2km in width at the Santiago Z landholding, located immediately south of Cortadera.

Santiago Z contains a large historical XRF soil molybdenum anomaly that is twice the size and four times the tenor of the soil molybdenum anomaly related to the Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery.

Soil assays confirm stronger molybdenum results than first outlined in earlier XRF molybdenum results as well as enrichment in copper, gold and silver (Cortadera metal signature).

Other element zonation patterns provide confidence in the presence of a potentially large copper porphyry system at depth.

Mapping by Hot Chili has recognised several areas of outcropping copper-bearing hydrothermal breccia at Santiago Z.

In addition, a review of detailed historical mapping at Santiago Z has highlighted the presence of a corridor of porphyries (91-96Ma) with similar age to Cortadera, recently dated by Hot Chili as a Late Cretaceous porphyry (92Ma +/- 2Ma).

Further detailed mapping will focus across the corridor of hydrothermal brecciation and porphyries which have intruded the shallowly dipping local volcano-sedimentary sequence, similar to the Cortadera porphyry deposit setting.

A review of historical geophysical datasets across Santiago Z is underway and the Company is planning a programme of extensional soil geochemistry and detailed mapping as its next steps in advance of first-pass drilling later this year.

Hot Chili is advancing well with its 40,000m drill programme at Cortadera with three rill rigs in operation.

New drill results are being compiled for release (including CRP0046D) and the company expects to provide an update on drilling activities next week.

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The Assay – Hot Chilli Confirms Second Large Copper Porphyry System At Cortadera

Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) is confident that extensional drilling at the Cortadera copper-gold discovery is on-track to deliver a significant upgrade to the company’s combined Costa Fuego copper-gold resource in Chile.

Costa Fuego’s combined resource base sits at 724Mt grading 0.48% CuEq for 2.9Mt copper, 2.7Moz gold, 9.9Moz silver and 64kt molybdenum and is being expanded toward a Tier-1 copper resource (+5Mt copper).

New results for CRP0046D and confirmation of a further two wide visual intersections (assays pending for CRD0080 and CRP0047D) continue Cortadera’s run of strong resource extensions.

Hot Chili has now achieved eight significant extensional diamond drill intersections since Cortadera’s maiden resource was announced in October last year.

Two diamond drill rigs are operating on a 24-hr basis to complete a large resource expansion drill programme across Cortadera this year.

New results for drill hole CRP0046D have returned two significant intersections comprising 114m grading 0.5% copper and 0.2g/t gold from 248m depth and 185m grading 0.5% copper and 0.2g/t gold from 568m depth down-hole. The two higher grade intersections were contained within a broader drill result of 838m grading 0.3% copper and 0.1g/t gold from 140m depth

Managing Director, Christian Easterday, noted that importantly, the two higher grade intersections in CRP0046D were recorded in areas previously modelled as low grade within the main porphyry (Cuerpo 3) of the Cortadera resource.

Results are pending for two wide visual intersections of porphyry mineralisationrecorded in CRD0080 (between 550m and 1,100m depth) and CRP0047D (between 720m and 920m depth) across extensions to the high-grade core at Cortadera’s main porphyry.

Both zones of mineralised porphyry comprise visual estimates of 0.5% – 2.5% chalcopyrite contained as fine dissemination and in association with 2% to 8% B-vein abundance. Visual estimates of sulphide minerals are not an accurate representation of expected assay value and are provided for indicative purposes only.

Mr Easterday said these latest results add to the high-grade zone recently recorded in CRP0061D (318m grading 0.6% copper and 0.2g/t gold) and continue to confirm growth of higher grade, bulk tonnage, resources at Cortadera.

Meanwhile, first diamond drill testing by Hot Chili below Cuerpo 1 has commenced and diamond drilling is continuing across Cuerpo 3.

The company is also successfully its Reverse Circulation (RC) drill programme at Cortadera and Cortadera North.

A total of eight first-pass RC drill holes are complete across the large Cortadera North target, located 2km north of Cortadera. An additional three RC drill holes remain to be drilled and the Company expects to report results once all assays have been received and compiled.

Multielement pathfinder results will be key to determining potential areas for second-pass diamond drill hole tails and RC follow-up drilling at Cortadera North.

In addition, several shallow significant intersections have been recorded from preliminary RC drill holes across Cuerpo 1 at Cortadera, including 36m grading 0.4% copper and 0.1g/t gold from surface (including 10m grading 0.7% copper and 0.2g/t gold from 24m) and 22m grading 0.5% copper and 0.1g/t gold from surface.

Further RC drilling is planned to extend areas of shallow higher-grade copper and gold at Cuerpo 1.

The company looks forward to providing further drill results and operational updates from its rapidly advancing Costa Fuego copper development in Chile.

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The Assay – Hot Chili Warming Up In Chile

Company Seeking Greenfield Discoveries At Cape Ray

Matador Mining Limited (ASX: MZZ) has appointed Warren Potma as its new full-time Exploration Manager as it looks top grow its Cape Ray Gold Project in Newfoundland, Canada.

Mr Potma is a highly experienced exploration manager, with a successful career spanning over 25 years. He was most recently Principal Geologist for CSA Global, where he provided specialist consulting services to exploration and mining companies across four continents, contributing to significant mineral resource growth and exploration success through maximising the value of, and integration of, large complex geological datasets.

Prior to his time at CSA Global, Mr Potma was Exploration Manager for Hot Chili Limited, an ASX listed company with a portfolio of projects in Chile. During his tenure with Hot Chili, the exploration team delivered a 250% increase in the Productora project’s global Mineral Resource (Cu-Au-Mo), made the maiden porphyry copper discovery for the project (Alice Deposit) and delineated an eight km long porphyry alteration system.

While at Hot Chili, the team also defined a maiden Ore Reserve and provided the geological and geometallurgical inputs required for the Productora Pre- Feasibility Study. Prior to this, Warren held the position of Exploration Manager for Silver Swan Group/Caravel Minerals, which followed eight years with the CSIRO where he led the Mineral Systems and Targeting applied research stream that focused on developing and applying exploration technologies and methodologies across the Australian exploration and mining sector.

He holds a Master’s in structural geology from Monash University, and is a member of both the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

“Whilst the Cape Ray Project is host to an existing high-grade mineral resource with excellent potential for expansion along strike, it is the opportunity for significant greenfield discoveries along the under explored Cape Ray Shear Zone that attracted me to Matador,” Mr Potma said.

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The Assay – Matador Appoints Highly Experienced Exploration Manager

Another Record Step-Out Drilling Result In Chile

Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) has announced another record drill result and another large boost to the scale of its rapidly emerging Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery in Chile.

The new result from Diamond (DD) drill hole CRP0040D recorded a 542m intersection grading 0.5% copper and 0.2g/t gold from 422m depth down-hole, which included a wide higher-grade zone of 218m grading 0.7% copper and 0.2g/t gold.

It is Hot Chili’s sixth record drill result delivered at Cortadera since July last year, and importantly, it has significantly extended the strike length of the largest porphyry discovered to date – Cuerpo 3 – by a further 100m.

Managing Director Christian Easterday said the bulk tonnage high grade core discovered at Cuerpo 3 is continuing to expand in size and importance as a key value driver in the development potential of Cortadera.

Mr Easterday also reported that owing to restrictions on travel and the company’s own duty of care to its personnel, Hot Chili have temporarily suspended all drilling, clearing and exploration operational activities in Chile.

He said the company will utilise this time as an opportunity to accelerate its preparations towards the estimation of a significant first resource for the Cortadera discovery.

Prior to operational shutdown, the company had drilled its next expansion DD hole to a depth of 616m down-hole. The 250m step-out hole is designed to test the southern extension of Cuerpo 3 at depth. The hole was temporarily suspended in mineralised porphyry, having intersected mineralised skarn and mineralised porphyry dykes from a depth of approximately 480m down-hole.

The hole is planned to be completed to a depth of 1,200m upon re-commencement of drilling. In addition, Hot Chili have completed two deep Reverse Circulation (RC) pre-collars across the Cuerpo 3 North target, located 500m north of the main porphyry.

Both holes intersected wide zones of skarn alteration in association with strong pyrite mineralisation above the position of a large coincident chargeability and conductivity geophysical anomaly. Diamond drill tails are planned to extend both holes at depth and further four deep RC holes are also planned.

Results are expected to be received in the coming weeks, subject to reduced turn-around time from laboratories.

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The Assay – Hot Chili Feeling Spicy In South America

High Grade Core Continues To Expand Copper Discovery

Hot Chili Limited (ASX:HCH) has commenced a 40,000m drilling programme at the Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery, part of the company’s Costa Fuego coastal range copper development in Chile.

The company’s fully funded 2021 work programme aims to continue building Costa Fuego toward a tier one copper project (+5Mt copper) from its current contained metal resource base of 2.9Mt copper and 2.7Moz gold.

Drilling has been significantly accelerated from last year with two drill rigs currently in operation and a third rig expected to commence shortly in February.

New results from drilling designed to expand the main high-grade core at Cortadera have returned another set of strong intersections.

A primary focus for the company in 2021 is to expand the high grade core (defined as >0.6% CuEq), currently sitting at 104Mt at 0.74% CuEq, within Cortadera’s 451Mt Mineral Resource.

Diamond drill hole CRP0052D returned a higher-grade intersection of 80m grading 0.6% copper and 0.2g/t gold within a broader zone of 382m grading 0.4% copper and 0.1g/t gold from 524m down-hole depth along the south-eastern extent of the high-grade core to the main porphyry (Cuerpo 3).

In addition, the company has recorded an exceptionally wide 750m interval of porphyry mineralisation from a down-hole depth of 250m in diamond drill hole CRP0046D. The hole is currently at 1,000m in porphyry mineralisation and is planned to extend to 1,200m at this stage.

Importantly, within the wide 750m visual interval of mineralisation, two zones of strongly mineralised porphyry have been recorded:

• 100m wide zone between 250m and 350m depth down-hole, and
• 170m wide zone between 550m and 720m depth down-hole

Both zones of strongly mineralised porphyry comprise visual estimates of 1.0% – 2.5% chalcopyrite contained as fine dissemination and in association with 2% to 15% B-vein abundance. Visual estimates of sulphide minerals are not an accurate representation of expected assay value and are provided for indicative purposes only.

Importantly, the results provide confidence for further growth in predictive extensional areas where the high-grade core is absent from Cortadera’s maiden resource owing to low or no drilling density.

The company commenced a major drilling campaign at Cortadera recently, initially utilising two drill rigs with a third drill rig set to arrive in February.

Each drill rig will focus on key growth areas within the Cortadera discovery window as well as other large satellite growth opportunities.

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The Assay – Hot Chili On Fire At Cortadera