Noticias

Cheers for Hot Chili as first La Verde diamond hole confirms copper discovery

• Hot Chili’s first diamond hole delivers 529m copper-gold hit extending original 308m discovery by 221m
• Two higher-grade zones of 146m and 66m emerge despite mechanical issue forcing early stop
• All six holes intersect porphyry mineralisation pushing system to 600m deep with lateral growth east and west

Special Report: Hot Chili is breaking out the bubbles after its first diamond hole at the La Verde copper-gold discovery in Chile exceeded expectations by returning an exceptionally thick intersection.

Hole DKD032, which was terminated early due to mechanical issues, still returned a 529m intersection grading 0.41% copper and 0.21g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 41m to the end of hole.

This includes two higher grade zones of 146m at 0.6% Cu and 0.3g/t Au from 70m and 66m at 0.45% Cu and 0.31g/t Au from 295m.

What’s particularly interesting is the result significantly extends the 308m intersection at 0.5% Cu and 0.3g/t Au from 46m recorded in discovery hole DKP002.

The result is hugely positive for Hot Chili’s (ASX:HCH) goal of growing resources at the Costa Fuego project and scale of future operations.

There are already early signs that the rest of the second phase drill program will contribute to this objective given that all six holes completed to date have intersected porphyry-style copper mineralisation beyond the previous RC drill limit.

Not only has this pushed the vertical extent of the system to a depth of about 600m, it has also delivered lateral growth to the east and west.

Impact modelling has already outlined the potential for significant additional open pit material to be added to the front-end of Coast Fuego’s 20 year mine schedule, providing both mine life growth and materially enhanced financial metrics.

Before and after

The figures below released by Hot Chili today show the La Verde porphyry system with planned drilling compared with updated mineralisation interpolants. This exhibits +0.2% copper in yellow, +0.3% copper in red and +0.4% copper in magenta.

The dashed lines also show conceptual open pit shells with $US3.5/lb copper (blue) and $US6/lb copper (green).

La Verde drilling

Phase two diamond drilling started on September 22, 2025, with one rig operating on a double shift basis to extend the initial La Verde discovery footprint of 1000m by 750m with a depth of 400m.

The first hole has already achieved the following objectives:

• Confirming the convergence of higher-grade copper-gold mineralisation centres at depth
• Expanding both vertical and lateral extent of the northeastern higher-grade mineralisation centre, characterised by a high gold-to-copper ratio; and
• Materially extending the original 308m intercept by a further 221m to end of hole.

While DKD032 was terminated early due to mechanical problems, the company plans to e-enter the hole following completion of the Phase two program.

This has the potential to continue intersecting porphyry mineralisation given the final sample recorded 0.53% copper and 0.2g/t gold.

Three of the six holes in the program twinned earlier reverse circulation holes while another three were drilled as diamond tails to further extend mineralisation at depth.

Assays for the remaining five holes are pending with HCH noting that laboratory turnaround times are extended due to high seasonal sample volumes across Chile.