Perth based explorer Hot Chili has kicked-off 30,000m of diamond drilling at its Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile, taking aim at seven large-scale copper targets ahead of an expected mineral resource upgrade. The company says it has started double shifts as it drills for more copper-gold nearby its already massive Cortadera and Productora mineral resources.
The company says a ‘resource upgrade’ is on the horizon for the project this quarter as it drills 24/7 to put down the first 10 diamond holes for approximately 5000m. The first five holes will assess four large-scale targets at the Cortadera prospect and the next five will test three large-scale targets adjacent to the Productora prospect.
A total of 47 reverse-circulation (RC) drill holes for 11,500m have been completed since the company’s drill programme commenced in late July last year. Those holes aimed to assess the resource extension potential at Cortadera and first-pass drilling across new satellite targets, in addition to putting down the pre-collars for the upcoming diamond drill holes.
The best intersections from the RC program came from four holes drilled across the historical Marsellesa open pit copper mine footprint, which is laterally extensive at about 400m in length and 200m in width with multiple zones of shallowly-dipping, strata-bound copper mineralisation.
Those copper hits were 25m grading 0.4per cent from surface including 10m at 0.8per cent from 7m, 16m at 0.5per cent from 197m including a 6m section at 1.1per cent from 198m, 19m grading 0.5per cent from 195m including a 2m chunk grading 2.2per cent from 195m and 8m at 0.8per cent from 1m including 4m at 1per cent from 4m.
Six RC holes were drilled across the Cordillera copper mine footprint, located approximately 1km west of Marsellesa, with the best copper hits there going 93m at 0.3per cent from surface including 14m at 0.4per cent from surface, 53m grading 0.3per cent from 19m including 10m at 0.4per cent from 44m and 184m at 0.2per cent from surface including 14m at 0.3per cent from 42m.
The eight RC holes completed across 1.8km of strike extent of the greenfield Corroteo exploration target 5kms southeast of Cortadera returned no significant intersections however the company says the northern extent of Corroteo showed Significant pyrite mineralisation and follow-up holes confirmed the presence of a tonalitic porphyry, leaving plenty of room for new discoveries.
The Costa Fuego project is located about 600kms north of the Chilean capital city of Santiago in the low-altitude coastal ranges of the Atacama region.
The project boasts three deposits within a 10km radius ‑ Productora, Cortadera and San Antonio – with a combined mineral resource estimate of 725 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources grading 0.38 per cent copper for 2.75 million tonnes of the metal, 0.11 grams per tonne gold for 2.56 million ounces, silver grading at 0.45g/t for 10.5 million ounces and also 67,400 tonnes of molybdenum for some additional flavour.
The resource sits near the sealed Pan-American Highway near existing infrastructure of the Huasco valley and only 55km from the Las Losas port facilities.
In June last year, Hot Chili released the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment, which is similar to a JORC scoping study, which suggested a 95,000 tonne per year copper metal production was possible from that resource, resulting in $309 million a year on average in free cash across a 16-year mine life.
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