Hot Chili Ltd (ASX:HCH) has further extended what it describes as one of the world’s standout copper-gold porphyry drill intersections ever recorded in drilling at the Cortodera Copper-Gold Project along the Chilean coastal range.
Final assay results for hole CRP0013D have increased the width by another 128 metres downhole to provide 750 metres grading 0.6% copper and 0.2 g/t gold from 204 metres in depth.
This includes a high-grade zone comprising 188 metres at 0.9% copper and 0.4 g/t gold from 516 metres, which in turn includes 100 metres at 1.0% copper and 0.5 g/t gold from 530 metres.
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The intersection also includes significant silver and molybdenum credits.
This result has outlined the beginnings of a bulk tonnage, high-grade zone at depth at Cortadera and has changed the scale and pedigree of the copper-gold porphyry discovery.
The Hot Chili team is now compiling numerous historical and new datasets at the project to facilitate various geological models aimed at refining the approach to drill design for a a planned second phase of diamond and reverse circulation drilling.
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Additionally, the company has engaged independent consultant AMC to prepare an initial mineral resource estimate at Cortadera.
The new bulk tonnage high-grade zone discovered at Cortadera exhibits many similar characteristics to some of the world’s most notable large-scale underground porphyry mines and developments.
This zone's potential scale is unknown and remains largely open, representing an exciting focus for Hot Chili’s second phase of drilling.
Hot Chili’s open pit development approach to combine two bulk tonnage deposits in Productora and Cortadera, which are within 14 kilometres of one another, along with nearby high-grade satellites, has been materially enhanced by the addition of this new bulk tonnage, high grade zone.
Any potential underground development scenario that may eventuate given further success is advantaged by the presence of a significant open pit inventory already established and growing.