Hot Chili nails further wide, shallow copper-gold hits in Chile

Drillers carefully pull out high-grade core from drill rods at Hot Chili’s La Verde copper project in Chile. Credit: File

Hot Chili (ASX: HCH) has served up another encouraging drill update from its rapidly growing La Verde copper-gold discovery in Chile, with the latest results continuing to expand what is emerging as a substantial, high-grade porphyry system just 30 kilometres from the company’s flagship Costa Fuego project.

The company’s third reported diamond drillhole from its phase two program returned a whopping 495 metres grading 0.38 per cent copper and 0.10 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 3 metres depth. This included a higher-grade 123-metre interval running 0.50 per cent copper and 0.13g/t gold. The sheer scale and continuity of mineralisation from near surface reinforces La Verde’s credentials as a potential source of bulk-tonnage open-pit feed.

A second diamond hole also delivered strong results, intersecting a blistering 426m at 0.37 per cent copper and 0.08g/t gold from 194 metres depth. Within that interval, Hot Chili reported multiple higher-grade zones, including 107m grading 0.46 per cent copper and 52m grading 0.50 per cent copper.

Importantly, both holes ended in copper-gold mineralisation, highlighting clear potential for further growth at depth.

Drilling has restarted following a short holiday pause, with assays still pending for six additional holes, including two that visually logged broad zones of strong copper porphyry-style mineralisation from shallow depths.

Management says the results confirm the ongoing expansion of La Verde’s high-grade core underscores the discovery’s strategic importance to Hot Chili’s Costa Fuego operations, which the company plans to use as a central processing hub in Chile’s coastal Atacama region.

Hot Chili is delighted to report these compelling assay results from La Verde, with more expected soon. Against a strong backdrop of record copper and gold prices, the reporting of wide, near-surface, copper-gold intercepts from a new major discovery underscores the strategic significance of La Verde to Hot Chili.

Hot Chili Managing Director Christian Easterday

La Verde is well-positioned just down the road from Costa Fuego’s planned central processing hub, in the Huasco Valley Region north of Santiago and is ideally located to potentially add further feed to the proposed mill should it develop into a mining operation.

Costa Fuego comprises the Cortadera, Productora, Alice and San Antonio deposits and is regarded as one of the better undeveloped copper resources globally. It has a mammoth combined resource of 798 million tonnes grading 0.45 per cent copper equivalent, for 2.9 million tonnes of copper, 2.6 million ounces of gold, 12.9m ounces of silver and 68,000t of molybdenum.

Geologically, Cortadera and Alice fit the mould as classic copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry systems, while San Antonio is interpreted as a lode-style copper skarn – the kind of mineralisation commonly developed on the fringes of intrusive bodies and porphyry centres.

Rounding out the suite, Productora is thought to be a tourmaline-breccia hosted copper-gold-molybdenum system, adding yet another layer of geological diversity to the district.

The company believes its Costa Fuego project is a global standout among a limited number of independent, large-scale copper operations nearing development, with strong exposure to rising prices.

Impact modelling by Hot Chili suggests La Verde could add significant open-pit material to the front end of Costa Fuego’s proposed 20-year mine schedule, potentially extending mine life and materially improving the financial metrics outlined in Hot Chili’s March 2025 pre-feasibility study.

The timing of these results could hardly be better after copper prices reached all-time highs of US$6.15 (A$9.20) a pound at the start of the week, notching up a stellar 53 per cent rise in the past 12 months alone.

Long-term consensus prices now sit at around US$4.51 per pound for copper and US$3,137 per ounce for gold — both well above the assumptions used in the pre-feasibility study — meaning any additional near-surface tonnes could deliver outsized value.

As drilling continues to target extensions to the high-grade core as well as lateral and strike growth, punters can expect further news flow in the near term.

Consistent thick intercepts, shallow mineralisation and substantial leverage to buoyant copper and gold markets all point to La Verde fast shaping up as a compelling growth engine within Hot Chili’s broader Costa Fuego development strategy.

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