Hot Chili (HCH) lifted its outlook for the La Verde project at the Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek on September 23, 2026, saying the asset would add roughly 50% more bulk tonnage inventory to its flagship Costa Fuego operation.
The company, which describes itself as the largest copper developer listed on the ASX, acquired La Verde about two years ago after six to seven years of consolidation work. Diamond drilling at the site began approximately a year ago.
La Verde completed a 10,000-meter reverse-circulation drill program in which nearly all holes intersected mineralization. The deposit features a high-grade starter pit with an enrichment blanket roughly 70 meters thick and has recorded more than 14 intersections exceeding 15 meters in true width. Hot Chili said the starter pit could supply about five years of production at the front end of Costa Fuego.
Operationally, the acquisition extends Costa Fuego's mine life from 20 to 30 years and lifts annual copper-equivalent output to about 150,000 tonnes, with the potential to scale toward a 200,000-tonne project. Management cited low strip ratios, coastal infrastructure, and seawater processing as factors expected to push cash costs into quartile one.
Geographically, La Verde sits at roughly 700 meters elevation — significantly lower than high-Andes peers such as BHP's Los Bronces — and sits adjacent to port facilities and major towns. Hot Chili holds the only seawater processing and extraction license in the Huasco region and is also developing a separate water project there. A second water license is expected in the coming months.
Financially, Hot Chili projected that current long-term consensus commodity prices — copper at $5.03 per pound and gold at $3,500 per ounce — could nearly double the project's internal rate of return from a 19% baseline established under March 2023 price assumptions, while net present value would roughly double from a post-tax NPV-to-CapEx ratio near 1.0. The cash-flow index is expected to approach 2.0.
The company targets filing its environmental impact assessment by the end of Q1 2025, with a major resource upgrade expected through 2025 and 2026. A final investment decision is targeted for 2029, with first production aimed for 2031.
Hot Chili shares have risen from AUD 0.40 to around AUD 1.70 since listing, adding roughly AUD 350 million in market capitalization. The stock has delivered an 11.73% return over the past year, and the company currently carries a market cap of about $1.09 billion. Its shares trade at approximately a 2.5x discount to North American peers on comparable metrics; advanced copper developments in the transaction space trade around 0.6x price-to-nav. Glencore is the company's largest shareholder, alongside Osisko Gold Royalties.
