Hot Chili has served up another impressive drilling update from its La Verde copper-gold porphyry discovery in Chile, hinting at more growth potential in the deposit's higher-grade core and a clearer line of sight to a potential starter pit.
Location and Context
La Verde sits 30km south of the company's flagship Costa Fuego copper-gold project, with its planned central processing hub in the coastal range of the country's Atacama region.
Fresh Assay Results
The company has delivered fresh assay results from a recent diamond drill hole, which it says has upgraded an area previously thought to be lower grade based on earlier, first-pass reverse circulation (RC) drilling.
Highlights from the hole included 86.6 metres at 0.45 per cent copper equivalent from 4.4m downhole depth, including 16.7m at 0.60 per cent copper equivalent from 12m.
Deeper down the same hole, another 163.9m intercept assayed 0.43 per cent copper equivalent from 185.2m depth, including 20m at 0.60 per cent copper equivalent from 206m.
Second Diamond Hole
A second diamond hole has also produced strong visual results from an intercept 120m south of the preceding headline hit. The hole was put in as a 175-metre step-out from the company's previous interpretation of the deposit's central core on La Verde's eastern flank.
Logging revealed a broad 180-metre intercept laced with chalcopyrite-rich, porphyry-style copper mineralisation. Assay results for this hole are expected to be returned later in the month.
Building on Momentum
The latest update builds on previous serious momentum from earlier announcements. In early April, Hot Chili reported what it described as its most significant La Verde intercept to date from a diamond hole, roughly 280m south of the headline hole.
That result delivered a whopping 725m assaying 0.42 per cent copper equivalent from 18m, featuring 62m at 1.03 per cent copper equivalent from 671 metres.
Taken together – and subject to results yet to come from the 180m intercept – the three holes look like they will materially extend the higher-grade core of the La Verde deposit towards the east.
Shallow RC Drilling
The company has also launched shallower reverse circulation (RC) drilling up-dip of the core hits, with the first three holes collared in the centre of the proposed starter pit area, beneath a historical waste dump.
All three RC holes returned wide, visually interpreted intersections of strong porphyry-style mineralisation from near-surface. Logging of the holes also noted green copper oxides and copper limonites within and immediately beneath the waste dump.
The company says the porphyry observations, coupled with evidence of copper oxides, may indicate potential for the higher-grade gold-rich core of the deposit to lie closer to surface in the vicinity of the dump.
According to management, the RC drilling has extended the copper-sulphide-rich, porphyry-style copper mineralisation laterally beyond previous interpretations, pointing to a possible footprint grading above 0.4 per cent copper equivalent that remains open in all directions.
The realities will be revealed when assays are returned in June.
Previous Indications
The company flagged in February the possibility of a shallow, higher-grade zone at La Verde, with results such as 150m at 0.52 per cent copper equivalent from 30 metres in one hole, while a second hole bored through 220m at 0.47 per cent copper equivalent from 38m depth.
Outlook
With assay results still pending for 14 drill holes, eight diamond and six reverse circulation holes, and a third drill expected to start shortly, Hot Chili looks set to keep the news flow coming.
If the extensive visual copper indications on the eastern flank of the core of the deposit and in the starter pit zone are confirmed to carry solid numbers, La Verde could continue to strengthen Costa Fuego's early mine scheduling options and overall scale.
