Noticias

Hot Chili grows La Verde high-grade copper-gold core with 725m hit

• DKD039 delivers La Verde’s biggest hit so far – 725m at 0.42% CuEq from just 18m
• It also nailed 62m at 1.03% CuEq from 671m, pushing the high-grade core ~200m deeper
• Two rigs are turning and a third is due in May with 11 more holes awaiting assays

Special Report: Hot Chili has landed its widest drill hit yet at La Verde in Chile, with hole DKD039 returning 725m at 0.42% CuEq from 18m and pointing to a fast-growing high-grade core.

Within that is 22m at 0.71% CuEq from 42m, 46m at 0.65% from 249m, 51m at 0.62% from 433m and 62m at 1.03% from 671m.

That last hit is the real eye-catcher for Hot Chili (ASX:HCH), pushing the high-grade core about 200m further down.

The shallower 22m hit has also made the case for a possible higher-grade starter pit stronger.

Managing director Christian Easterday said DKD039 was the widest significant drill intersection so far.

“It has also confirmed a major 200m down-dip extension to the high-grade core of the deposit, recording 62m grading 1.03% CuEq from 671 m depth,” he said.

As well as confirming the extension, it found more higher-grade ore just under shallow gravel at La Verde.

This would mean easier, cheaper digging if La Verde ends up as a starter pit for the larger Costa Fuego project.

And with two drill rigs operating at Costa Fuego and a third planned, Hot Chili is working to make that happen.

Easterday said an expansion and integration of La Verde’s high-grade core into Costa Fuego’s resource base would be added to the mining inventory this year.

Continuity keeps building

There’s more bulk tonnage support too, with new results from infill holes DKD037 and DKD038.

DKD037 returned 184m at 0.42% CuEq from 105m, including 27m at 0.60% from 203m, while DKD038 returned 221m at 0.37% CuEq from 48m, including 45m at 0.51% from 53m.

Diamond tail extensions DKP009D and DKP012D have also stretched the mineralised area further to the east and north.

DKP009D returned 388m at 0.41% CuEq from 34m and DKP012D recorded 394m at 0.46% CuEq from 44m.

Feeding the hub

La Verde sits about 30km south of Costa Fuego’s planned processing hub in Chile’s Atacama region.

That makes these new hits even more important.

And Hot Chili is not just talking about a one-off discovery, it is looking at what could be a key feed source, close to existing infrastructure and the planned production hub.

It’s still early days and Hot Chili is upfront about that, but these new results make a stronger case for a mineable shape at surface and deeper down.