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Half-Yearly Report: Hot Chili Limited and Controlled Entities Interim Financial Report for the Half-Year Ended 31 December 2024

In This Article:

PERTH, Australia, March 14, 2025 /CNW/ -

Review of Operations

Highlights

  • Hot Chili adds former La Verde Copper Mine (La Verde) to its Costa Fuego coastal copper hub and confirms significant Cu-Au porphyry discovery.

  • Costa Fuego Cu-Au Pre-feasibility Study (PFS): Final Stages Underway.

  • Huasco Water – Water Supply PFS: Nearing Completion.

  • 31 December 2024 cash position A$19 million.

Hot Chili Confirms Major Cu-Au Porphyry Discovery at La Verde

On 11 February 2025, the Company announced new drill results from ten Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes, confirming La Verde as a significant copper-gold porphyry discovery in low elevation coastal Chile, with broad, consistently mineralised intersections extending over 300 m vertically, commencing at shallow depths.

Drilling confirms scale & growth potential*

  • Wide, shallow mineralisation – current discovery footprint extends 550 m by 400 m and remains open in all directions.

  • Deeper potential remains untapped – Mineralisation commences from shallow depths, extends to more than 300m below surface, and 8 of 12 drill holes reported to date end in mineralisation at the limit of RC drilling depth capability.

  • Gravel cover masking potentially much larger porphyry system – step-out drilling underway.

  • Potential below the historical oxide copper open pit untested – drill testing yet to commence.

  • Major discovery in its infancy – every drill hole has intersected porphyry-style, copper-gold mineralisation (refer to Table 1 for details on significant intercepts).

As at 11 February 2025, Hot Chili had completed 19 RC drill holes (5,700 m) at La Verde, with assay results from 12 holes reported so far confirming a major copper-gold porphyry discovery* in Chile's coastal range, with assays pending for seven additional RC holes, with geological logging confirming the presence of porphyry host-rock featuring porphyry-style A- and B-type veining in each of the pending drill holes.

Diamond drilling being planned, targeting potential for deeper, higher-grade zones intersected at depth and to test potential for +1km vertical depth extent, typical of other recent major porphyry discoveries, such as Hot Chili's neighbouring Cortadera discovery, *La Verde Mineral Exploration/Exploration Target Area: Exploration targets and/or Exploration zones and/or Exploration areas are speculative and there is no certainy that any future work or evaluation will lead to the definition of a mineral resource.

Adjacent Properties: The Company has no interest in, or rights to, any of the adjacent properties mentioned, and exploration results on adjacent properties are not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Company's properties. Any references to exploration results or mineral occurrences on adjacent properties are provided for information only and do not imply any certainty of achieving similar results on the Company's properties.


Table 1. Significant Drilling Intersections from La Verde (CNW Group/Hot Chili Limited)
Table 1. Significant Drilling Intersections from La Verde (CNW Group/Hot Chili Limited)



Notes to Table 1: Significant intercepts for La Verde are calculated above a nominal cut-off grade of 0.2% Cu. Where appropriate, significant intersections may contain up to 30m down-hole distance of internal dilution (less than 0.2% Cu). Significant intersections are separated where internal dilution is greater than 30m down-hole distance. The selection of 0.2% Cu for significant intersection cut-off grade is aligned with marginal economic cut-off grade for bulk tonnage polymetallic copper deposits of similar grade in Chile and elsewhere in the world.

1 Previously released significant intercepts.  See announcement dated 18th December 2024

Hot Chili adds La Verde to its Costa Fuego Coastal Copper Hub

In November 2024, Hot Chili executed an Option Agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the historical La Verde Copper Mine (La Verde), located 30 km south of the Company's low-altitude, Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile (Figure 1).