Copper miner Hot Chili Ltd (ASX: HCH) is down 2.5 per cent despite getting closer to securing a water supply for its copper mining projects in Chile.
The company has submitted a second maritime concession application supporting a multi-user water network for the Huasco valley territory in the Southern Atacama region.
Crucially, the application also covers brine discharge, allowing for seawater desalination work on the Huasco coastline, meaning that a potential water network could supply both raw seawater and desalinated water.
Hot Chili is also getting ready to consolidate all of its water assets – including a maritime concession, coastal land accesses and water pipeline easements – within a standalone water company.
The company will look to engage with potential customers in the region for desalinated water supply, and also suitable water infrastructure partners.
Hot Chili’s executive vice president José Ignacio Silva said securing these assets and arrangements was crucial for mining work in the region.
“Water scarcity is ‘the’ critical issue for new mine developments in the Atacama on both the
Chilean and Argentinean side of the Andes,” he said.
“Hot Chili is the only company holding most of the necessary permits required to provide desalinated water to the Huasco valley – a prolific region for potential new global copper supply needed to support global electrification and decarbonation.
“Securing these assets has involved over a decade of commitment. Socially and environmentally, multiclient and multipurpose water infrastructure is the new reality.”
Hot Chili has spent the past decade securing infrastructure permits to support its Costa Fuego copper-gold project – located 600 kilometres north of Santiago – which comprise an indicated resource of 798 million tonnes at 0.45 percent copper equivalent, and an inferred resource of 203 million tonnes at 0.31 percent copper equivalent.
Hot Chili has been trading at $1.21 on the ASX. Hot Chili also lists on Canadian and American exchanges TSXU and OTCQX.