ASX listed Hot Chili’s charmed run in Chile has continued, with its maiden drilling program beneath the small scale, family run Valentina copper mine intersecting high grade extensions of sulphide-hosted mineralisation along strike and at depth.
The latest drill intercepts include a 12 metre section going 1.5% copper from 28m down-hole, including 6m @ 2.7% copper.
Another hole completed below the first hole, turned up 8m @ 2% copper and 16g/t silver from 124m down-hole, which included 2 metres at an impressive 4.8% copper and 22g/t silver from 125m.
The new results confirm the high-grade tenor and prospectivity of the Valentina prospect, which is located 6km north of the strongly mineralised, small scale San Antonio copper mine.
The company recently completed a detailed drill out of the San Antonio deposit and has established ore mineralisation over at least 700m of strike now to nearly 200m at the prospect.
The Valentina drill holes were located about 30m south of the existing underground mine development workings and have confirmed continuity of that mineralised ore lode.
According to Hot Chili, the drilling assays from Valentina provide further confidence in the company’s ability to build a higher-grade copper inventory from satellite mining operations in order to underwrite the company’s nearby lower grade flagship Productora asset.
Follow-up drill planning is underway to expand coverage across the larger strike potential of Valentina in preparation for later resource definition drilling activities.
Hot Chili conducted significant due diligence and site exploration works before the latest drilling program at Valentina.
Seven historical drill holes were completed across the mine area previously, showing results up to 11m @ 2% copper from 120m down-hole, including 7m @ 2.7% copper from the same depth.
Mineralised widths ranged between 1m to 5m and surface and underground mine development is centred across 230 metres of defined strike at present.
Historical mine production data from 1997 reported that the small-scale Valentina underground mine extracted sulphide ore parcels with high-grade ranges of between 3.4% and 4.8% copper.
Hot Chili has also completed geological reconnaissance and rock chip sampling that has defined anomalous surface mineralisation over at least 700 metres on the main Valentina trend.
Upcoming drill programs will target the Valentina copper ores both along strike and at depth to increase the volume of mineralisation and build mineral resources around the prospective mine workings.
By Matt Birney
