Hot Chili, which took 100 per cent ownership of Cortadera last year - one of the two largest global copper discoveries since 2016 - has completed its journey to becoming a dual-listed company after its shares commenced trading on the Canadian TSXV this week. The C$30 million raised will underwrite 18-months of drilling and development works at its multi-deposit Costa Fuego copper-gold porphyry project in Chile.
The Costa Fuego project takes in a massive 724 million tonne resource base grading 0.48 per cent copper equivalent from two main deposits, Cortadera and Productura, which sit 14 kilometres apart.
Hot Chili has so far drilled out a 451 million tonne resource at Cortadera grading 0.46 per cent copper equivalent in the indicated and inferred categories. The deposit contains more than 1.6 million tonnes of copper, about 1.9 million ounces of gold, nearly 10 million ounces of silver and some 27,000 tonnes of molybdenum.
Productora boasts a 273 million tonnes resource at a 0.52 per cent copper equivalent.
The company has said the next stage in the development of the two deposits will focus on upgrading the Cortadera resource to a higher confidence category and advancing a preliminary feasibility study on the broader, multi-deposit Costa Fuego project. Hot Chili will also seek to test other, multiple high-priority exploration targets identified at the tenure.
Hot Chili’s Managing Director, Christian Easterday said:"We hope to add a presence in North American markets and continue to focus on delivering Costa Fuego into production against a backdrop of strengthening copper price and limited new large copper mines.
“Costa Fuego is a stand-out major copper development in a short field of players globally.”
A recent 40,000 metre drilling campaign returned some eye-watering intercepts including 610m grading 0.5 per cent copper equivalent, 486m going 0.6 per cent copper equivalent and 362m at 0.6 per cent copper equivalent.
Assay results from more than 6,000m of drilling remain pending.
The company also plans to add a fourth drill rig to its fleet and test several large-scale targets at Productora and the nearby Santiago Z prospect.
Additionally, Hot Chili has boosted its board with the appointment of experienced mining and global capital markets professional, Dr Nicole Adshead-Bell.
Dr Adshead-Bell is a Canadian resident with a PhD in structural/economic geology from James Cook University, Townsville where she also completed her geology undergraduate and honours degrees.
Hot Chili seems to have hit all the right notes during the past 12 months and is now well set to hit the ground running in 2022. With a globally significant discovery to its name and copper prices still hovering just under US$10,000 per tonne, it wouldn’t surprise if there were more than a few interested parties keeping a close eye on developments.
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