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ReGIonAL RoUnD-UP LAtIn AMeRIcA

Hot Chili seeks love from

north American markets

revious commodity price super-cy- Chili’s own resemblance to another pro- Hot Chili aims to be on the North
Pcles have helped transform some lific copper story to validate the decision American market by Q4 this year, hope-
Latin American juniors. Unfortunately for to move to the Canadian bourse. fully coinciding with a large resource up-
those on the ASX, that same rockstar “Really, it comes down to the Austral- grade for Cortadera.
status hasn’t always been attainable. ian market’s apprehension to support Easterday speaks nonchalantly about
Hot Chili Ltd managing director Chris- very large-scale plays,” he said. lifting the combined resource to more
tian Easterday feels there is an under- “We saw the same thing with FMG. In than 1bt via a 40,000m diamond and RC
appreciation for his company’s potential fact, FMG were laughed at by the Aus- drill programme currently under way.
as a major copper player, underpinned tralian market and all of a sudden in “We have three drill rigs on the ground,
by its $115 million market cap and a lack came North America and built what FMG five shifts of drilling going, and we’re drill-
of appetite from Australian investors. is today.” ing around the clock,” Easterday said.
Observing the copper kings partying it Hot Chili may be a junior, but its large- “The drill results have continued to de-
up with their mega-market caps on the scale tenement holdings in South Amer- liver world-class intercepts. We recently
TSX-V, Easterday says Hot Chili’s appli- ica boast promising numbers. released a very stunning 144m @ 1%
cation for a dual listing is necessary, as The company’s Costa Fuego cop- CuEq intercept on the main porphyry at
announced in July. per project in Chile – a combination of Cortadera and we’re starting to see a
“The dramatic rerate of the North its Cortadera, Productora and El Fuego nice, sweet spot emerge from that.
American large-scale copper space is resources – contains 724mt @ 0.48% “I think we now have eight of the top-
just something the Australian market CuEq for 2.9mt copper, 2.7 moz gold, 25 copper-gold intercepts globally in the
missed last cycle and it’s missing it again 9.9 moz silver and 64,000t molybdenum. past two-and-a-half years, recorded at
this cycle,” he told Paydirt. “At this stage, Hot Chili is the largest Cortadera.
“Unfortunately, it means that compa- copper developer on the ASX,” Easter- “We’re pushing really hard, and we’ll
nies like ourselves are in the wrong mar- day said. update the market shortly on that.”
ket with a large South American project. “When we look at our peer space, The market can also expect a number
It naturally fits very well for the North we don’t have anyone else in that size of other updates from Hot Chili as the
Americans. range. The last time the ASX had any- company progresses a PFS at Costa
“Large-scale copper developers in one of that size was Equinox Resources, Fuego for a Q4 2022 finish. Engineering
South America are all on the North which was a company that successfully and consulting firm Wood Group plc has
American market. Hot Chili is the only listed on the TSX-V, dramatically rerated been appointed to captain the process.
one in that space that isn’t.” its share price and nine months later was “Hot Chili has a natural advantage in
Easterday recounted the tale of taken over for $7.69 billion by Barrick that the original project, Productora, al-
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd and Hot [Gold Corp].” ready has a completed PFS,” Easterday
explained.
“A lot of the work on environmental
permitting; on design and site layout and
scaling, has already been completed.
That means the company can piggyback
off that work.
“We’re also looking to make key ap-
pointments very shortly, in terms of the
executive study manager that will be
leading that charge.”
Combining the busy pipeline of work
and quest to list on the TSX-V, Easterday
said Costa Fuego has the potential to
flourish as a top-five global copper pro-
ject outside of the major miners.
“We’re finally at a point where now the
scale of the company is just a little bit too
large for the Australian market,” he said.
“We’re certainly looking forward to
having a dual listing in place.”
– Fraser Palamara

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