COMMODITY 1X1 – The Significant Value of Water Rights
Grizzle
Hot Chili – Road to 2025
Stockhead
Hot Chili VRIC 2025
Hot Chili and the future of the project with Glencore on board
Making Money Matter
Major copper discovery for Hot Chili
Making Money Matter
Hot Chili -Major Copper-Gold Discovery, Large Scale Appeal
Crux Investor
Hot Chili’s standout drill intersections raise the mercury at La Verde
December 18, 2024 | Stockhead

- Hot Chili’s thick copper-gold intersections validate historical drilling at its La Verde project
- Second hole’s 308m intersection at 0.5% copper and 0.3g/t gold exceeds expectations
- It also highlights La Verde’s potential to host a higher-grade copper-gold zone
Special Report: Hot Chili’s initial drilling at La Verde has validated its decision to acquire the historical copper mine in Chile after returning thick copper-gold intersections.
While the first hole – DKP001 – provided a good show with a 174m intersection grading 0.4% copper and 0.1g/t gold from 36m, the second hole about 120m to the southeast really upped the ante after recording a 308m interval at 0.5% copper and 0.3g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 46m to the end of hole.
Not only did DKP002 exceed the company’s expectations and end in mineralisation, it also intersected a higher grade zone of 202m at 0.6% copper and 0.3g/t gold from 70m.
The results are hugely encouraging for Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) as the La Verde porphyry footprint measures about 850m by 700m, which is roughly comparable to its higher-grade Cortadera Cuerpo 3 copper-gold porphyry about 30km to the north.
Cuerpo 3 is also the largest porphyry at Cortadera with a higher confidence indicated resource of 798Mt grading 0.45% copper equivalent, or contained metal of 3.6Mt copper and 3Moz gold, and inferred resources of 203Mt at 0.31% CuEq.
What this means is that further drilling successes could unlock another resource of similar size, which will in turn provide a substantial boost to the company’s Costa Fuego copper hub.

La Verde mine
The historical La Verde open pit mine in the Domeyko mining district, which the company acquired in November 2024, was previously exploited by private interests for shallow porphyry copper-style oxide mineralisation with limited drill testing outside the central lease or at depth.
Importantly, it sits in the centre of the company’s recently consolidated and larger Domeyko landholding, secured in an option agreement back in April 2024.
This marks the first time the area has been consolidated, and provides the company with access to a much larger potential porphyry copper deposit footprint measuring around 1.4km by 1.2km.
HCH promptly launched and completed a 12-hole reverse circulation drill program totalling ~3150m with the first two holes designed to validate historical drill intercepts and test the interpreted northern extension of the porphyry from the open pit.
While DKP001 was successful in validating the most notable copper intercept from historical drilling, the assays from DPK002 really demonstrated the value of La Verde by highlighting its potential to host a higher-grade copper-gold zone.
The consistent higher-grade results confirm the extension of the porphyry system almost 400m to the northeast of the open pit, a significant step out considering the existing pit measures about 200m by 400m.
It is also located immediately beneath a gravel cover sequence which obscures the ultimate extent of the porphyry system.
Assays are pending for the remaining 10 holes though the success of the first holes has prompted HCH to expand the RC program by another 2000m of drilling, expected to be completed in late January 2025.
Hot Chili pours new water company into Chilean valley
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.
Hot Chili’s new JV to ensure water supply security for Costa Fuego
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.