Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) (TSXV: HCH) (OTCQX: HHLKF) (“Hot Chili” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a binding letter of intent (“LOI”) with Bastion Minerals Limited (ASX: BMO) (“Bastion”) for the grant to Hot Chili of an option to acquire 100% of Bastion’s Cometa Project in Chile (“Cometa”), located near Hot Chili’s Costa Fuego Copper-Gold Project (“Costa Fuego” or “the Project”) in the coastal range of the Atacama Region, Chile.
Cometa consists of exploration and mining concessions covering approximately 56km2 in area located approximately 15km southeast of Costa Fuego’s planned operating centre (refer accompanying Figure 1) and contiguous with Hot Chili’s landholdings in the region.
The option is another step in Hot Chili’s consolidation strategy for the Costa Fuego copper project.
The Company’s recently published Preliminary Economic Assessment entitled Costa Fuego Copper Project – NI 43-101 Technical Report Preliminary Economic Assessment with an effective date of June 28, 2023 (the “PEA”)1 establishes Costa Fuego as a low-risk, long life copper project benefiting from a low start-up capital and a high annual copper equivalent2 metal production profile of over 100 kt for a 16-year mine life, including 95 kt copper and 49 koz gold during primary production (first 14 years) at C1 Cash Cost3 of US$1.33/lb (estimated net of by-product credits).
Hot Chili is focussed on up-scaling Costa Fuego’s resource base and potential study scale towards a 150,000 tpa copper production profile ahead of the delivery of the Costa Fuego Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”), expected in H2 2024. Cometa provides additional optionality for the discovery of further mineral deposits in the Costa Fuego Project area with the potential to provide supplemental feed and/or a longer mine life to the project laid out in the PEA.
Drilling operations at Cortadera continue, with nine Reverse Circulation (“RC”) drillholes completed so far for 2,010m.
Four of these drillholes have been completed across the western extension of the Cortadera porphyry resource, including one pre-collar in preparation for a deep diamond hole beneath Cuerpo 4. Following the drilling of RC pre-collars at Cortadera, the RC drill rig will begin a hydrogeological program at Cortadera commencing in mid-September.
One diamond drill rig is planned to commence double shift drilling in September. Preparations are underway to bring a second diamond drill rig online as the Company ramps up for its extensive 30,000m expansion drilling campaign across multiple exploration targets.
