Collective’s Apollo drill program at Guayabales hits grade

Collective Mining (TSXV: CNL; US-OTC: CNLMF) on Wednesday reported a fresh set of high-grade assay results from the Apollo porphyry system at the Guyabales project in Caldas, Colombia.

Nov 23, 2023
Collective’s Apollo drill program at Guayabales hits grade
Collective Mining's Guayabales gold project in Colombia.

At Apollo, the team recorded impressive intercepts, including 130.45 metres at 2.17 grams gold-equivalent per tonne from a depth of 119.9 meters and 98.75 meters at 2.71 grams gold-equivalent from 132.35 metres, the company said in a press release.

These results stem from a short-hole drill program designed to infill the shallowest part of the system, providing data for block modelling and enhancing mineralization understanding.

Collective says the team has extended the dimensions of the Apollo system’s high-grade brecciated porphyry zone to 560 metres, previously measured at 520 metres, indicating a more extensive mineralized footprint. The company believes the system continues to offer expansion potential to the west, north, and at depth.

Collective also, on Nov. 7, reported the discovery at Apollo of high-grade tungsten mineralization in its shallow portion. This tungsten, contained within the mineral scheelite, varies between 0.06% and 0.59%, averaging 0.25%.

This finding has increased the weighted average gold-equivalent grade of the drilled holes in the tungsten-rich area by 28%, to 3.67 grams gold equivalent from 2.87 grams per tonne. Given tungsten’s status as a critical global mineral, the company said this enhancement significantly boosts the project’s economic prospects.

About 3 km northeast of Apollo, the Trap target shows promising mineralization and geochemical characteristics similar to the Apollo system, Collective said.

Spanning about 2 km by 2 km, Trap notably exceeds Apollo in size. The ongoing drilling program at Trap focuses on building on the 2022 discovery hole TRC-1, which revealed significant gold-silver-copper mineralization over 102.2 metres of gold-silver-copper mineralization averaging 1.53 grams gold-equivalent per tonne.

With four rigs operational, Collective continues its 42,000-meter drilling campaign for 2023.

Upcoming results include directional drill holes at Apollo and initial findings from the Marmato Extension target, representing an additional exploration focus for Collective, alongside the drilling activities at Apollo, Plutus, and the newly started Trap drilling.

At $4.11, Collective shares closed down 3.3% on Wednesday, having traded at $1.90 and $7.05 over the past 12 months. It has a market capitalization of $249 million.