With the stunning success of its Cortadera copper-gold discovery, it shouldn’t be surprising that Hot Chili would seize the chance to acquire more ground.
And that is exactly what the company has done with its consolidation of the new Santiago Z landholding about 5km south of its world-class porphyry discovery.
Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) was drawn by the presence of a large historical soil molybdenum anomaly that is about twice as large and four times the tenor of the soil molybdenum anomaly related to the Cortadera.
Initial XRF analysis of geochemical sampling carried out by the company has already replicated and confirmed the size and grade of the historical molybdenum anomaly.
While the company’s XRF soil molybdenum data has correlated very well with soil molybdenum assay results in all campaigns it has undertaken, lab assays are still required to confirm this result.
Molybdenum is a key pathfinder element used to identify copper porphyry systems in leached soil profiles and Hot Chili is encouraged by both the size and tenor (+10 parts per million molybdenum) of the anomaly at Santiago Z compared to the discovery footprint of Cortadera.
Additionally, copper-bearing hydrothermal breccias and porphyry intrusive stocks have been mapped in several locations that are coincident with the soil anomaly.
Santiago Z consolidation
Hot Chili consolidated the landholding over Santiago Z over the past six months.
Most of the molybdenum anomaly is contained primarily within exploration leases that were privately held by the same Chilean landowner that the company has an option agreement with for the San Antonio high-grade copper mine.
The landowner has agreed to include the Santiago Z leases into the San Antonio option agreement at no cost and also agreed to a 24-month extension of the term for the original 90 per cent earn-in agreement.
Hot Chili has also applied for and secured several exploration applications that surround the privately held Santiago Z leases.
This article was developed in collaboration with Hot Chili, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.