09:12 AM EDT, 04/15/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Hot Chili Ltd. ( HHLKF ) , which rose 4.5% last Friday, said Monday that it has submitted a second maritime concession application to support a potential multi-user, water network for the Huasco Valley area of the Southern Atacama region of Chile.

According to a statement, the application also includes brine discharge for potential seawater desalination operations on the Huasco coastline so that both raw seawater and desalinated water could be provided by a potential water network..

Additionally, the company intends to transfer its water assets (maritime concession, costal land accesses and water pipeline easements etc) into a new stand-alone water company controlled by Hot Chili ( HHLKF ).

The company the second maritime concession application is a "key next step" to developing a potential desalinated water business to supply community, agricultural and new mining demand of up to 3,700 litres per second (l/s) over the long-term in the Huasco Valley. Leveraging water assets to enable the development of multiple, nearby, large-scale mining projects, comes at a time where Chile's government is actively encouraging investment in multi-user desalination water networks in the Atacama, it added.

Hot Chili's ( HHLKF ) Executive Vice President, Jose Ignacio Silva, in a statement said: "Water scarcity is the critical issue for new mine developments in the Atacama on both the Chilean and Argentinean side of the Andes. Hot Chili ( HHLKF ) 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," he added.