Things are starting to get spicy for Hot Chili in its copper hunt in South America. Already boasting a 724 million tonne resource grading 0.48 per cent copper equivalent across its Costa Fuego suite of tenements in Chile, the company has defined what appears to be a second large porphyry copper system at the newly acquired Santiago Z tenure.
In January Hot Chili commenced an aggressive 40,000 metre resource drilling campaign at the Cortadera project which forms a part of the total Costa Fuego resources. Three rigs are currently working overtime across the tenure aiming to deliver a major resource upgrade in the fourth quarter this year.
Cortadera has already grown into a mammoth 451 million tonne deposit grading 0.46 per cent copper equivalent since being acquired by the company in early 2019.
The good news continues to flow at Cortadera with drill results released last month returning what the company believes to be another world-class intercept with a whopping 813 metre interval going 0.4 per cent copper and 0.1 grams per tonne gold from just 54m depth.
As the rods continue to turn at Cortadera, the developments at the 5,468-hectare Santiago Z land package 5km to the south are also starting to turn heads.
Santiago Z contains a soil molybdenum anomaly that is nearly double in size and four times the tenor to the molybdenum soil anomaly which pointed to the Cortadera discovery.
New soil results and mapping from Santiago Z appear to confirm a large copper porphyry footprint measuring over 4km in length and 2km in width with a stronger molybdenum presence than initially recorded.
The enrichment of copper, gold and silver in the soil - all signature metals for the Cortadera discovery - appear to add further lustre to the prospects at Santiago Z.
Mapping conducted by Hot Chili has also identified numerous areas of copper-bearing hydrothermal breccias outcropping from the ground, whilst a review of historical mapping at the project has highlighted a corridor of porphyries believed by the company to be of similar age to Cortadera.
According to management, other element zonation patterns at the project provide confidence for a potentially large copper porphyry system to be present at depth.
Hot Chili plans to undertake further works at the project with maiden drill testing expected for later in the year.
As punters eagerly await the imminent release of the latest drill results from Cortadera in anticipation of a resource update later in the year, perhaps it is Santiago Z that in time will turn out to be the next star in Hot Chili’s growing list of exploration successes.
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By Matt Birney
