Hot Chili (ASX: HCH) has made its widest copper-gold intersections to date from drilling on the eastern flank of its Productora copper project in Chile.
The company noted the first results from its 100,000 metre drilling campaign pointed towards significant strip ratio reductions and a boost to the economics of planned central pit development.
Notable results were:
- 64 metres at 1.5% copper, 0.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 147ppm molybdenum from 124 metres;
- 48 metres at 1.2% copper, 0.2g/t gold and 65ppm molybdenum from 42 metres including 25 metres at 1.9% copper, 0.2g/t gold and 117ppm molybdenum; and
- 76 metres at 0.7% copper, 0.2g/t gold and 103ppm molybdenum from 44 metres including 12 metres at 1.6% copper, 0.5g/t gold and 200ppm molybdenum.
The two latter holes both end in mineralisation, indicating that it extends to depth.
Drilling program
Hot Chili’s drilling program is designed to deliver a second resource upgrade to Productora in the second half of 2013. This consists of 85,000 metres of reverse circulation and 15,000 metres of diamond drilling.
A focus for the drilling campaign at Productora is the definition of potential additional resources from an identified 2 kilometre zone along the eastern flank of the planned central pit development.
The zone was previously considered as waste in the company's recently announced positive scoping study.
Three drill rigs are currently drilling at Productora while a fourth will arrive shortly after completing drilling activities at the company’s Frontera copper project, where 7,000 metres of drilling have been completed.
Further drilling results are expected in the coming weeks and months.
Productora has a current Resource of 165.2 million tonnes at 0.6% copper, 0.1g/t gold and 132g/t molybdenum from surface.
Hot Chili is well funded for its drilling with cash in hand of $35.5 million as of 31 December 2012 with estimated cash outflows of $8.8 million for the March 2013 quarter.
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