Perth broker eyes major growth from Hot Chili’s regional exploration

Special Report: Hot Chili’s string of successes has Perth-based broker Argonaut Securities confident that its regional exploration will add significant scale to the Cortadera project.

The company recently extended the high grade core at the main Cuerpo 3 porphyry with a new 190m intercept grading 0.6 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of 392m, while a hole that veered off target hit a 314m zone grading 0.4 per cent copper and 0.1g/t gold from 616m.

However, it is Hot Chili’s (ASX:HCH) move towards regional exploration for the first time that has Argonaut excited.

The company is currently drilling reverse circulation pre-collars at the Cuerpo 2 porphyry where diamond tails will then test the potential for a high-grade core similar to that discovered at Cuerpo 3.

It will then move to drill large coincident geophysical IP and geochemical anomalies at the Cuerpo North and Cortadera North targets, which the broker believes have the potential to add significant scale to Cortadera.

It singled out Cortadera North, noting that it has a significant geochemical footprint of up to 2km in length.

Hot Chili is currently undertaking detailed mapping and geochemical surveys to refine drill targets.

“We expect the initial drilling will comprise up to four deep scout holes. Drill access tracks to this target are currently under construction,” Argonaut added.

Maiden copper-gold resource imminent

Argonaut is also looking forward to the company defining its maiden resource for the Cortadera project.

It previously estimated the potential for the project to host a maiden 500 million tonne (Mt) resource from its current drilling- similar to Rio Tinto’s recently unveiled Winu maiden resource in Western Australia (503Mt grading 0.45 per cent copper equivalent).

“This should generate a significant regional inventory when combined with the existing Productora resource of 237Mt at 0.48 per cent copper and 0.1g/t gold, located just 14km from Cortadera,” Argonaut added.

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.