Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) has uncovered a fourth porphyry from a stage one diamond drilling (DD) program at its Costa Fuego Copper-Gold Project in Chile. 

The company says results represent the first batch of assays gathered from drilling across the recently consolidated western extension of its Cortadera copper-gold porphyry resource. They also confirm the presence of a fourth porphyry within a ‘significant’ drill intersection of shallow copper-gold porphyry. 

Hot Chili notes results from drillhole LCD0001, which was drilled as a confirmatory twin hole to historical AMSA drillhole COR-03 (128m @ 0.5% copper equivalent (CuEq) (0.4% Cu and 0.1g/t gold (Au) from 28m downhole), has returned a similar result to this hole. 

Results from LCD0001 include 120m @ 0.5% CuEq (0.4% Cu, 0.2g/t Au) from 22m depth down-hole to end of hole including 38m @ 1.0% CuEq (0.8% Cu, 0.4g/t Au) from 22m depth or 18m @ 1.3% CuEq (1.0% Cu, 0.5g/t Au) from 32m depth. 

the wide intercept of mineralised porphyry intersected below Cortadera’s Cuerpo 1 porphyry confirms ‘significant’ resource expansion potential

The company also reports the wide intercept of mineralised porphyry intersected below Cortadera’s Cuerpo 1 porphyry confirms ‘significant’ resource expansion potential. 

Results for a further 8 RC drillholes at Cuerpo 4 are currently pending. 

With the first batch of assays from drilling now received, Hot Chili announces drilling has been expanded to test 5 new targets across Cortadera’s larger porphyry cluster footprint with 10 drillholes complete and a further 15 drillholes remaining in stage-one.

Meanwhile, a second-pass 4,000m drill program is planned to commence following review of the first-pass program drill results. 

The company is fully funded with a cash balance of about $10 million. 

Hot Chili is an ASX-listed senior copper development copper company based in Chile with a goal of growing and developing its ‘high quality’ Costa Fuego copper project situated in a low elevation, accessible region of northern Chile. The project represents the consolidation of the Cortadera porphyry copper-gold deposit and the Productora copper-gold deposit about 14km apart.

Both the Cortadera and Productora deposits contain an indicated resource of 391 million tonnes (Mt) @ 0.52% CuEq, containing 1.7Mt Cu, 1.5 million ounce (Moz) Au, 4.2 Moz Ag, and 37,000 Mo, as well as an inferred resource of 334Mt @ 0.44% CuEq containing 1.2Mt Cu, 1.2Moz Au, 5.6Moz Ag and 27,000 Mo, at a cut-off grade of 0.25% Cu-Eq.

Images: Hot Chili Ltd