Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) has announced the best drill intersection so far at its Cortadera project in Chile.
The company reported that the new drill results confirm the Company’s Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery in Chile as one of the most significant global discoveries of 2019.
HCH said that significant drill result for hole CRP0020D includes 972m grading 0.5% copper & 0.2g/t gold from surface, plus additional silver and molybdenum credits.
Hot Chili reported that a large, vertically extensive core of high grade now underpins Cortadera with expansion drilling underway and a first resource estimation due in the New Year.
The Company said that its first expansion diamond drill hole (CRP0029D) has just been completed, with assay results expected to be released in the coming weeks
HCH said that a further diamond drill hole is now underway (CRP0032D) and three deep reverse circulation drill holes are planned to be completed prior to Christmas.
Cortadera discovery
Hot Chili’s 100%-owned Cortadera is a major copper-gold porphyry discovery located along the Chilean coastal range. It lies 14km directly southeast of HCH’s large-scale Productora copper development and adjacent to the high grade El Fuego satellite copper projects.
The Cortadera discovery remains largely open and has demonstrated potential to host a large copper-gold deposit that the Company considers may be amenable to open pit mining.
There are four porphyries discovered to date at Cortadera. They are Cuerpo 1, Cuerpo 2, Cuerpo 3, and Cuerpo 4. The Cuerpo 3 is the largest of the four porphyries and remains open to the north, south and at depth.
Drilling at Cortadera
In April 2019, the Company had commenced a confirmation drilling programme comprising 17 holes. The program confirmed and extended areas of surface enrichment and wide, higher-grade, copper-gold sulphide mineralisation at depth.
The company has now reported encouraging drilling results from CRP0020D across the main porphyry, Cuerpo 3.
HCH said that the new result from diamond drill hole CRP0020D recorded close to a 1km intersection from surface and confirmed extensive high-grade copper and gold across the core of the largest porphyry discovered to date at Cortadera.
Best global drill results of 2019
The company reported that the result from drill hole CRP0020D is stunning and stands as one of the best discovery drill results recorded across the world in 2019.
Hot Chili reported that significant drill result for hole CRP0020D includes 972m grading 0.5% copper & 0.2g/t gold from surface, including the Widest Zone of High Grade Recorded to Date 412m grading 0.7% copper & 0.3g/t gold from 436m depth, plus additional silver and molybdenum credits.
HCH said that the results rival drill intersections from some of the world’s most recent and significant copper-gold discoveries including Cascabel in Ecuador and Timok in Serbia.
Large and robust high-grade core to Cuerpo 3
HCH said that the average grade of drill intersections recorded by it within the high-grade zone of Cuerpo 3 ranges between 0.7% – 0.9% Cu and 0.3 – 0.4g/t Au.
The company said that the combined copper-gold drill intersection grade of the Cuerpo 3 high grade zone compares favourably with the reserve grade of several notable large-tonnage underground mines such as Cadia East in Australia (0.47g/t Au & 0.3% Cu) and Candelaria Underground in Chile (0.85% Cu).
Expansion drill hole completed
HCH said that the Company’s first expansion diamond drill hole (CRP0029D) has just been completed at a depth of 982m, having recorded mineralised porphyry over a width of approximately 662m starting from 320m down-hole depth to end of hole.
HCH said that the results for CRP0029D are expected to be released over the coming weeks, once assay results have been received and compiled.
Next steps
The Company reported that it plans to complete another diamond drill hole along with three deep RC drill holes before Christmas.
Hot Chili announced that potential work across the Cortadera project may include further verification drilling, sampling, assaying, and QA/QC.
Other further work may also include mapping, surface sampling, ground or airborne geophysics as well as in-fill or exploratory drilling.
Management comments
Hot Chili’s Managing Director Christian Easterday said: “Cortadera is continuing to outperform expectations the Company had set following our announcement of a deal to acquire the privately-held discovery in February this year.
We have recorded many stand-out drill results this year, but this latest 972m drill result from surface firmly announces Cortadera’s arrival on the global copper stage.
In little over 9 months we have transformed the growth trajectory for our Company and outlined what could become the world’s next Tier-1 copper-gold discovery.”
