Australian miner Hot Chili has release the maiden estimates of mineral reserves at its Cortadera mine, located on the western coast of Chile.
According to the total inferred and indicated estimates, the mine contains 451mn mt of ore, grading 0.46pc Cu and 0.13pc Au, which roughly translates to about 2.9mn mt of contained copper, among other mineralization such as gold, silver and molybdenum.
The Cortadera mine is part of Hot Chili’s Costa Fuego project, which also comprises the Productora mine that has total mineral reserves of 273mn mt of ore, graded at 0.52pc Cu, suggesting it contains about 1.41mn mt of contained copper. Costa Fuego’s total reserve estimate has now been increased to 724mn mt, with a copper grade of 0.48, containing
The discovery has catapulted Hot Chili’s Costa Fuego to among the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world, above Rio Tinto’s Winu copper project in Western Australia by both deposit size and cut-off grade.