July 8, 2024 | The West Australian

Hot Chili has entered into a new joint venture (JV) aimed at supplying seawater and desalinated water to mining projects throughout Chile’s Huasco Valley where it is pursuing its own mammoth Costa Fuego copper-gold project.

The company today confirmed it will hold an 80 per cent interest in Huasco Water and its critical water assets in the JV with Chilean iron ore company Compania Minera del Pacifico (CMP). The new company is expected to supply desalinated water to operations including Costa Fuego and CMP’s Los Colorados iron ore mine.

The JV says further offtake negotiations are already underway.

The Huasco Valley region in Chile’s Atacama Desert is one of the driest regions on Earth, inducing significant water demands from mining operations and local communities. The new water initiative reflects an increasing trend in the Atacama region towards collaborative water infrastructure development, highlighted by a recent US$600 million (AU$890 million) deal for Antofagasta Minerals’ Atacama water rights and assets.

The Company has been receiving increasing interest from potential strategic funding parties in its advanced Costa Fuego copper-gold development and its recently announced Water Supply Studies. This interest, in combination with a rising copper price environment, provides confidence to accelerate the Company’s growth and development plans whilst preserving control of these assets.

Hot Chili managing director Christian Easterday

The company holds the only granted maritime water concession and necessary permits to provide critical water access to the Huasco Valley. It has outlined about 3700 litres per second of potential future desalinated water demand from new mine developments around the valley alone.

The JV partners are likely to underpin Huasco Water as potential foundation offtakers with the Costa Fuego copper project requiring some 700 litres per second of future seawater demand, while Los Colorados needs a further 200 litres per second. Hot Chili says significant economic, environmental and social synergies exist for all potential customers in the Huasco Valley, especially given growing community and regulatory opposition to continental water extraction in the Atacama.

Initial offtake discussions are already underway with nearby mine developers, with additional non-mining desalinated water customers expected to come from the area immediately adjacent to the Costa Fuego copper hub.

The Costa Fuego copper-gold project, which lies some 740m up the hill from the proposed Huasco desalination plant, features a measured and indicated resource that sits at 798 million tonnes at 0.45 per cent copper equivalent for 3.62 million tonnes of copper equivalent, containing 2.91 million tonnes of copper, 2.64 million ounces of gold, 12.8 million ounces of silver and 68,100 tonnes of molybdenum. It makes it one of a limited number of “globally-significant” copper developments that are not in the hands of a major mining company.

Hot Chili recently executed a $29.9 million fundraising campaign on the back of a US$15 million (A$22.23 million) net smelter royalty (NSR) deal with Osisko Gold Royalties, aimed at driving its Costa Fuego copper hub in Chile into production. It comes as the red metal’s price recently launched to 60-year highs, prompting majors across the world to look to acquire copper-producing assets of scale.

The Costa Fuego prefeasibility study (PFS) is expected in the second half of this year.

By further securing its water supply and also creating a new company capable of luring significant offtake partnerships, Hot Chili now feels confident enough to sink another 25,000m of drilling into the project. It will also pursue more regional exploration and land consolidation in a show of confidence at the copper project, taking final steps forward before a bankable feasibility study and final investment decision.

Copper, water and deep pockets of cash have Hot Chili set up for an eventful second half of the year. And with copper prices remaining solid, the company appears well-positioned now to give its giant Costa Fuego project a good crack at development.

July 8, 2024 | STOCKHEAD

• Hot Chili forms water joint venture with Chilean iron ore company Compania Minera del Pacifico
• Huasco Water will develop a multi-user seawater and desalinated water supply network
• This will supply future water demand for communities, agriculture and new mining developments for the Huasco Valley region

Special Report: Water is a valued resource that is scarce in areas like the Atacama, which is why copper-gold developer Hot Chili is pairing up with Chile’s Compania Minera del Pacifico to form a water joint venture.

The Atacama region includes the Atacama Desert – the world’s driest nonpolar desert in the world – and is unsurprisingly one of the most water stressed regions of the world.

It is also where Hot Chili’s (ASX:HCH) Tier-1 Costa Fuego copper-gold project is located – specifically within the Huasco Valley that has a long history of mining.

Costa Fuego includes the outstanding Cortadera deposit with an indicated resource of 798Mt grading 0.45% copper equivalent for contained resources of 2.9Mt copper, 2.6Moz gold, 12.9Moz silver and 68,000t of molybdenum.

Costa Fuego also holds a further inferred resource of 203Mt @ 0.31% copper equivalent for 0.5Mt copper, 0.4Moz gold, 2.4Moz silver and 12,000t molybdenum.

Mines typically need considerable amounts of water to operate, a point highlighted by Hot Chili’s estimate the Huasco Valley may need up to 3,700 litres per second of desalinated water in the future for its new mine developments.

A water supply concept study released in February this year confirmed the potential for a large-scale, multi-user desalinated water network serving the entire Huasco Valley, which rather neatly aligns with the Chilean Government’s push for such networks in the Atacama.

Water supply security

Given how important a secure water supply is to mining developments – including Costa Fuego – agriculture and communities in the Huasco Valley, HCH and Chilean iron ore company Compania Minera del Pacifico have established a new water company HW Aguas para El Huasco SpA (Huasco Water).

The 80-20 joint venture will hold the maritime water extraction licence, water easements, costal land accesses and second maritime application previously held by Sociedad Minera El Águila SpA (SMEA), which is also jointly owned by the two companies.

Huasco Water aims to develop a multi-user seawater and desalinated water supply network to supply future water demand for communities, agriculture and new mining developments for the Huasco Valley region of Chile.

HCH and CMP will be foundation offtakers for Huasco Water with the former’s Costa Fuego project expected to consume some 700l/s of sea water while CMP’s Los Colorados iron ore mine will require about 200l/s of desalinated water.

Water offtake discussions are also underway with nearby mine developers and additional non-mining, desalinated water customers situated close to Costa Fuego.

Water infrastructure trends

The company noted that its approach towards potential outsourcing and development of shared infrastructure, in addition to preserving scarce continental water sources, is fast becoming the accepted and responsible approach for unlocking future mining developments in the world’s most prolific copper producing region.

It highlighted Antofagasta’s recent sale of their water assets and water rights to the Centinela copper mine for US$600 million to a consortium of Transelec and Almar Water, which will finance, build, own and operate an expansion project that will sell seawater to the Centinela mine expansion.

The consortium will build a 144km long seawater pipeline using Centinela’s water rights that will parallel the existing pipeline from port to mine, allowing Antofagasta to save US$380M in capital expenditure for the construction of its stage 2 water infrastructure expansion.

HCH said this highlights the strategic nature and implicit value of critical water access rights within the Atacama, and an increasing trend in Chile towards outsourcing in the industrial infrastructure sector.

Hot Chili has loaded its financial base with a $29.9 million fundraising campaign aimed at supercharging its Costa Fuego copper hub in Chile – at a time when the reddish metal’s price is at a 60-year high.

The $119.45 million market-capped company’s significant raise, which it said drew strong demand from Australian and overseas institutional investors, coincides with a rising copper price sitting at about US$4.57 (A$6.91) per pound.

Management says it expects its private $24.9 million placement to be complemented by a further $5 million share purchase plan (SPP) to reach the $29.9 million in new funding. Shares were offered at $1 for both the placement and the SPP.

Following the completion of the raise, Hot Chili says it will move to finish its Costa Fuego prefeasibility study (PFS) in the second half of the year, further secure its water supply and also create a new water company, plug in 25,000m of drilling, pursue more exploration and land consolidation in the next 18 months and kick off a “bankable” feasibility study.

The boost to its finances follows hot on the heels of its recent half-yearly figures that showed it already had A$13.3 million in cash at the bank after reducing its 2024 commitments by US$10 million (A$15.12 million) through consolidating its option agreements, securing its water supplies and filing its technical report for the Costa Fuego copper-gold project.

We control large-scale assets in two of the most critical commodities of our time – copper and water – with two of the most desirable attributes – low-risk and near-term. In combination with a rising copper price which indicates the initial stages of a new copper price cycle driven by lack of supply, this gives the Company confidence to accelerate its growth and development plans while preserving control of these assets for our shareholders.Hot Chili managing director Christian Easterday

Easterday said the company had received increasing interest from potential strategic funding parties to help Costa Fuego’s copper-gold development and its recently-announced water supply studies. He said the project remains one of a limited number of “globally-significant” copper developments that was not in the hands of a major mining company.

Costa Fuego’s measured and indicated resource sits at 798 million tonnes at 0.45 per cent copper equivalent for 3.62 million tonnes of copper equivalent, containing 2.91 million tonnes of copper, 2.64 million ounces of gold, 12.8 million ounces of silver and 68,100 tonnes of molybdenum.

Hot Chili also recently inked a deal with Osisko Gold Royalties, pocketing US$15 million (A$22.68 million) in exchange for a 1 per cent net smelter return (NSR) royalty on copper and a 3 per cent NSR on gold across the Costa Fuego project. Management says the Osisko investment provided an endorsement of its project and its economics from one of North America’s leading royalty-streaming groups.

In addition, the company consolidated its tenure while expanding its ground footprint and kicked off its exploration and resource expansion drilling programs. It updated its resource numbers and obtained results from its initial drilling of its latest satellite targets at Marsellesa, Cordillera and Corroteo, with some good copper hits including 25m grading 0.4 per cent copper from surface with 10m at 0.8 per cent from just 7m depth at Marsellesa.

Hot Chili’s Costa Fuego is a boomer of a resource that is seems to be emerging at just the right time and the latest funding moves look set to put a solid set of wheels under the venture to get it fully on track.

STOCKHEAD

The nearby Domeyko mountains of the Andes in copper-rich Chile. Pic via Getty Images

• Landholding increased by 25% at flagship Costa Fuego project, which has a current resource of 798Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent
• Domeyko concessions bought as exercisable options to purchase for $4m
• Domeyko mining centre hosts several significant historical copper-gold mines, unexplored at depth

Special Report: Porphyry developer Hot Chili has acquired the ‘Domeyko cluster’ tenements to boost the size of its flagship 798Mt Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile by 25%.

Costa Fuego has a current resource of 798Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent for 2.9Mt copper, 2.6Moz gold, 12.9Moz silver and 68,000t molybdenum.

Two years of drilling and studies have the project now pegged as a low-risk, low-cost and long-life copper project in the world’s largest producer of the red metal.

Lately, Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) has been busy building out a network around its project with water supply and transport deals in the region.

It’s executed a five-year MoU deal with the nearby port to evaluate bulk tonnage loading alternatives for copper concentrate from Costa Fuego that would include a ‘take or pay volume’ clause based on at least 80% of the project’s future annual concentrate production.

The explorer has also announced a focus on water infrastructure and desalination in Chile’s Atacama region – one of the driest regions on earth.

A new addition to the south

Domeyko is the largest land consolidation undertaken by Hot Chili since Cortadera was added to Costa Fuego in 2019, adding 141km2 and representing a 25% lift in the company’s total tenure in the region.

The move contains several new tenement applications in addition to an option agreement to acquire 100% interest in several key tenements covering a highly prospective, 10km-long copper-gold mineralisation corridor.

The Domeyko mining centre hosts several significant historical copper-gold mines which were principally exploited for oxide mineralisation yet have had very limited exploration for copper sulphide mineralisation.

Both porphyry and structurally hosted styles of mineralisation are present in the area and historic datasets are currently being looked over across several highly prospective targets that have never been drilled.

The total exercisable option to purchase Domeyko comes to $4m, payable within two years to a private Chilean syndicate.

More drilling, exploration and development study workstreams across Costa Fuego are ongoing and further updates on progress of the company’s regional water supply business case study are expected soon.

STOCKHEAD

• Hot Chili has secured $24.9m through a private placement and is raising up to $5m under a share purchase plan
• Funds will support a Costa Fuego PFS, drilling, exploration and land consolidation
• Proceeds will also be used to set up a new water company

Special Report: Hot Chili is raising up to $29.9m through a private placement and share purchase plan to accelerate development of its meaty 798Mt Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile.

Australian, Canadian and overseas institutional investors along with existing shareholders demonstrated their confidence in the company’s assets by quickly snapping up the $24.9 million shares priced at $1 each under the private placement.

The company has good reason to be confident.

In the past two years, Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) has built Costa Fuego into a low-risk, low-cost and long-life copper-gold project with a current indicated resource of 798Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent, or contained resources of 2.9Mt copper, 2.6Moz gold, 12.9Moz silver and 68,000t molybdenum.

Indicated resources grant enough certainty for the company to start mine planning and also serve as a platform for a maiden reserve estimate for the upcoming pre-feasibility study.

HCH has already executed a five-year MoU deal with the nearby port to evaluate bulk tonnage loading alternatives for copper concentrate from Costa Fuego that would include a ‘take or pay volume’ clause based on at least 80% of the project’s future annual concentrate production.

The company is also exploring the potential to develop a water supply network in the Huasco valley region – one of the driest places in the world.

Fully funded to deliver key milestones

The placement is part of a broader capital raising that includes a share purchase plan offering existing shareholders the opportunity to subscribe for up to $30,000 worth of shares to raise up to $5m.

Taken together, the $29.9m capital raising ensures that HCH is fully funded to deliver the following key milestones in the growth and development of Costa Fuego:

• Completion the Costa Fuego PFS, expected in H2 2024
• Advance the water supply study and create a new water company, expected in H2 2024
• Up to 25,000m of drilling, exploration and further land consolidation over next 18 months, and,
• Commencement of a bankable feasibility study over the next 18 months

It will also increase the company’s s trading liquidity on the TSX Venture exchange.

“We control large-scale assets in two of the most critical commodities of our time – copper and water – with two of the most desirable attributes – low-risk and near-term,” Hot Chili managing director Christian Easterday said.

“The company has been receiving increasing interest from potential strategic funding parties in its advanced Costa Fuego copper-gold development and its recently announced water supply studies.

“This interest, in combination with a rising copper price environment, provides confidence to accelerate the Company’s growth and development plans while preserving control of these assets for our shareholders.”

Easterday is bullish the world is currently witnessing the early stages of a new copper price cycle, with a valuation of US$9,910/t on the LME at the time of writing.

Three-month contract prices rose around 18% in April alone, with a $60bn bid by BHP for Anglo American demonstrating the dearth of significant new copper developments in the global pipeline.

“The placement and share purchase plan maintain the company’s strategic funding optionality, while ensuring Costa Fuego remains one of a limited number of globally significant copper developments, not owned by a major mining company, that could deliver meaningful new copper supply this decade,” Easterday said.

“Market conditions are indicative of the initial stages of a new copper price cycle being driven by a lack of new supply. The company is now well funded to take advantage of controlling the right assets at the right time in the right place.”

STOCKHEAD

Hot Chili wants to provide desalinated water to the mining-intensive Huasco Valley. Pic via Getty Image

• Hot Chili is the only company in the Atacama region holding most necessary permits/licences to provide desalinated water supply to Huasco valley
• HCH has now submitted second maritime concession application to support a potential multi-user, water network for the Huasco valley area
• Both raw seawater and desalinated water could be provided by a potential water network
• HCH’s water assets to be transferred to a new, wholly owned water company

Special Report: Tier 1 copper-gold mine developer Hot Chili is expanding its horizons beyond traditional mining ventures with a focus on water infrastructure in Chile’s Atacama region – where water scarcity is a major challenge.

Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) is developing its flagship Costa Fuego copper-gold project, where 24 months of extensive drilling has confirmed the endowment of a 798Mt at 0.45% copper equivalent for 2.9Mt copper, 2.6Moz gold and 12.9Moz silver – with 68,000t of molybdenum to boot.

While the Costa Fuego project plans to utilise raw seawater, HCH sees an opportunity to build a water company focused on desalination operations along the Huasco coastline where major iron ore and copper mining projects exist and water scarcity is the current reality.

Beyond Costa Fuego: HCH is establishing a water company

Aligning with the Chilean Government’s push for multi-user desalination networks in the Atacama, HCH’s proactive approach positions it to address the critical challenge of water scarcity for new mining projects.

A water supply concept study released in February confirmed the potential for a large-scale, multi-user desalinated water network serving the entire Huasco Valley.

It’s now submitted a second maritime concession application to establish a multi-user network there and is preparing to transfer its water assets, including permits and land access, to a new water company under its control.

HCH says the application is crucial for developing this large-scale water supply, which aims to deliver up to 3,700L/s in the long term in the region and is the culmination of over a decade of permitting efforts for HCH’s Costa Fuego project.

Hot Chili executive VP José Ignacio Silva says water scarcity is a critical issue for projects in the Atacama, where Costa Fuego is surrounded by existing and potential mine developments.

“Hot Chili is the only company holding most of the necessary permits required to provide desalinated water to the Huasco valley – a prolific region for potential new global copper supply needed to support global electrification and decarbonisation,” Silva says.

“Securing these assets has involved over a decade of commitment. Socially and environmentally, multiclient and multipurpose water infrastructure is the new reality.”

A water supply business case study is underway and engagement with potential customers, infrastructure partners, and government regulators is ongoing.

The West Australian

The Las Losas Port facility to be tasked with handling Hot Chili’s copper concentrate. Credit: File.

Hot Chili has made a key step towards securing port access – one of the final in-country advantages for its Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile – by securing a crucial memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local port managers.

The Los Losas port at the centre of the negotiations is just 50km west of the company’s project that boasts 3.62 million tonnes of contained copper-equivalent.

As part of the MOU, management says it will fund 20 per cent of a two-year, US$4.6 million (AUD$6.95 million) feasibility study into developing a bulk-tonnage copper concentrate facility at the port. The study will include bulk loading alternatives for copper concentrates from existing facilities, potentially without modifying the existing infrastructure at the port.

The company believes the developed port would be a stimulant for many other projects in the area.

Following the study, Hot Chili says it will have a right of first refusal to ship copper concentrates through Puerto Las Losas facilities for three years. The company says it now has up to five years to negotiate a binding port services agreement, which may include a “Take or Pay Volume” clause, based on at least 80 per cent of Costa Fuego’s projected future annual concentrate production.

Management has confirmed the first item to be addressed will be the formation of a technical committee to progress the feasibility study. The committee will take aim at defining key deliverables and a timetable for management of the completion of the study’s workstreams within the first month.

Leveraging an existing port, located 50km away, into a bulk concentrate export facility has the potential to unlock significant capital and operating savings for Costa Fuego and other potential mine developers in the Huasco region of Chile. Hot Chili plans to jointly develop a significant copper infrastructure corridor, enabling our own production, and unlocking multiple projects within the region, which would benefit significantly from desalinated water supply and proximal bulk copper concentrate port facilities.

Hot Chili managing director and chief executive officer Christian Easterday.

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Last month, Hot Chili unveiled a six per cent boost to the indicated copper-gold resource at its Costa Fuego project and management says 85 per cent of its mineral resource estimate now sits in the indicated category. The company’s proposed open pit mine development will dig away at 93 per cent of the resource and the remaining 7 per cent will be accessed via underground mining.

The total Costa Fuego resource in the indicated category is now 798 million tonnes grading 0.45 per cent copper-equivalent for 2.9 million tonnes of copper, 2.6 million ounces of gold, 12.9 million ounces of silver and 68,000 tonnes of molybdenum. The total inferred resource is 203 million tonnes at 0.31 per cent copper-equivalent for 500,000 tonnes of copper, 400,000 ounces of gold, 2.4 million ounces of silver and 12,000 tonnes of molybdenum.

The project sits at low altitude, between 800m and 100m above sea level, about 600km north of Chile’s capital of Santiago and is comprised of four deposits – Cortadera, Productora, Alice and San Antonio – which are all in close proximity. The majority of the resource contained within the Cortadera deposit contains about 64 per cent of total indicated resources and 69 per cent of total inferred estimates.

The company says it is engaging with several potential infrastructure partners and reviewing the potential for direct government support to assist with driving the project forward. Management says that drive includes a concept study for a 100 per cent renewable energy-driven desalination water project for the southern Atacama region.

The proposition has the potential to supply agricultural, community and new mining demand in the Huasco valley region, near the Costa Fuego project, of up to a massive 3700 litres per second.

With port talks well and truly underway, Hot Chili is busily converting data from 24.5km of drilling across Costa Fuego into a maiden mineral reserve for its upcoming prefeasibility study (PFS) that is expected to be completed in the second half of this year.

The company’s share price was up on today’s news to hit an intraday high of $1.07 on good volume, up almost 14 per cent from yesterday’s close of 94c.

At the inaugural AusIMM Mineral Resource Estimation Conference in Perth last week the results of the Parker Challenge Competition were presented, with the Hot Chili Resource Development team awarded first place for their outstanding application and demonstration of professional best practice.

The innovative Parker Challenge was designed and judged by the mining industry’s most experienced Resource Geologists, to quantify the “between person variance” seen in resource estimation. Hundreds of participants from around the world were given the same deposit to estimate, with Rio Tinto suppling the dataset from their Oyu Tolgoi deposit in Mongolia, as well as sponsoring a $55,000 prize.

Hot Chili Resource Development Manager Kirsty Sheerin thanked her team for their afterhours dedication to completing the Challenge, while also advancing the company’s Costa Fuego Project in Chile, currently on track to deliver a Preliminary Economic Assessment this financial year. The experience and talent of Senior Resource Geologist Chris McKie, Senior Project Geologist Madeline Wallace and Senior Database Administrator Katie Collins resulted in a winning submission, which the judges unanimously deemed to have no fatal flaws, standing out from other entries for its robustness of process and execution.

Ms Sheerin added, “Hot Chili has assembled one of the best resource development teams going around, highly motivated – and clearly competitive! – the collaborative culture fostered by Managing Director Christian Easterday has enabled this result. Hot Chili developed this approach with the guidance and mentoring of industry doyens such as Dr Steve Garwin as Chief Technical Advisor, Elizabeth Haren as Resource Geology Qualified Person, and Dr John Beeson as Lead Structural Geologist. This technical mentoring resulted in a first-class porphyry estimate, with the team utilising knowledge gained during completion of the Cortadera Mineral Resource Estimate in 2022”.

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STOCKHEAD | January 13, 2023

Two drill rigs are currently drilling Cortadera’s potential fourth porphyry. Pic: Getty Images

An initial 10,000m drilling program will test four porphyry targets as well as three other targets on the recently optioned AMSA landholding.

The company has started the new year with a bang as one diamond drill rig – operating on a double shift basis – and one reverse circulation rig are back in operation, testing Cortadera’s potential to host a much larger copper porphyry cluster than originally defined.

Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) has more than doubled the strike length of the discovery from 2.3km to 5.2km, increasing the near term material resource growth potential.

Both drill rigs are busy drilling Cortadera’s fourth porphyry, where previous historical drilling intersected shallow copper-gold porphyry mineralisation at 128m grading 0.5% copper equivalent (0.4% copper and 0.1g/t gold) from 28m.

Key growth activities on track for delivery this year

HCH says it is well funded to complete its planned drilling and deliver the next set of key growth and development milestones for Costa Fuego this year, which include a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in the first half of this year and a resource upgrade in the second half.

It hopes to potentially up-scale Costa Fuego’s future annual metal production rates, currently being studied at up to 100,000t copper and up to 70,000oz gold for a +20-year life of mine.

Hot Chili intends to deliver Costa Fuego’s Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) by 2024 and remains on-track as one of only a few near-term production projects in the world capable of producing +10,000tpa copper in the next five years.

The Assay | May 17, 2022

Hot Chili Ltd (TSXV:HCH, OTCQX:HHLKF, ASX:HCH) has filed a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report for its Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile with the Canadian Securities Administrators.

The filing of the report is further to its mineral resources upgrade announcement released to ASX on March 31, 2022 “Hot Chili Delivers Next Level of Growth” (Mineral Resources Upgrade Announcement).

The Report titled “Resource Report For the Costa Fuego Copper Project Located in Atacama, Chile Technical Report NI43-101” and dated May 13, 2022, with an effective date of March 31 2022, was prepared pursuant to Canadian National Instrument 43-101.

It is available for review on both SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and the company’s website (www.hotchili.net.au). The Report supports the news release dated March31, 2022 announcing a significant increase in the company’s mineral resource estimates at Costa Fuego.

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