Collective Mining drills 1.22 g/t AuEq over 55 metres at Guayabales, Colombia

Collective Mining Ltd. [TSX, NYSE-CNL] reported a maiden drill program is now under way in the southern portion of Plutus target, which is one of a series of high-impact targets located within the company’s Guayabales project located in Caldas, Colombia.

Additionally, positive assay results from the now completed reconnaissance drill program at the Box target are included herein. The company currently has five drill rigs operating at the Guayabales project as part of its fully financed and on-schedule 40,000-metre drilling program for 2024.

Ari Sussman, executive chairman, commented: “We are excited to finally start drilling the copper-gold porphyry target located in the southern portion of Plutus in hopes of making another big discovery. Even though economic greenfield porphyry discoveries are exceedingly rare, we want to take this shot at Plutus given we already have a major discovery under our belt at the Apollo system, locating only one kilometre to the west, and a potentially emerging large-scale discovery at the Trap target. If we were to discover an economic porphyry at Plutus, it would benefit greatly from the existing robust infrastructure in the area, all of which is located in a mining friendly camp. As a reminder, the southern copper-gold porphyry target at Plutus is also only 1,000 metres away as the crow flies to Aris Mining’s Marmato project, which is currently under construction with first gold pour expected in late 2025. Also, if one were to speculate about potential development scenarios for the Guayabales project, all of which are still subject to numerous studies to determine the economic and social viability of the project, one scenario might be to develop Apollo initially and use the cashflow to pay for development of Trap and Plutus.”

Highlights: The Plutus target, which lies approximately 1,000 metres east of Apollo, measures 1,000 metres by 750 metres in area and remains open in all directions. Two targets have been outlined thus far at Plutus, an untested copper-gold porphyry target in the south and a breccia pipe target in the northwest. Prior assay results from drilling in 2023 into the breccia pipe target in the northwest yielded multiple broad intercepts including 136.45 metres (m) at 1.31 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq).

The copper-gold porphyry target in the southern portion of Plutus measures more than 500 square metres in area and has been defined by large and robust coincidental copper, gold and molybdenum in soil and rock anomalies grading greater than 300 parts per million (ppm) copper, 0.20 g/t gold and 20 ppm molybdenumThe drill program, which is now under way and coring in a northwest direction in hole PSC-1, will consist of a radial fan of six short drill holes focused on outlining the geometry of the early porphyry unit in Plutus South. Once assay results are received and assessed, the data will be used to vector with deeper drill holes designed to discover an economic deposit.

All assay results have now been received from a comprehensive initial reconnaissance drill program at the Box target, which locates approximately 1.5 km west of the Apollo system. Reconnaissance drilling has intersected gold and silver mineralization covering an area measuring approximately 1,000 metres by 500 metres consisting of sheeted polymetallic CBM veins and some evidence of porphyry mineralization. Results to date indicate that the shallow drilling has intersected the upper and cooler temperature portion of a well mineralized system and that deeper drilling is warranted.

Highlight assay results from drilling at Box include 18.55 metres at 1.09 g/t AuEq from 186.65 metres (BOXC-1), including 2.35 metres at 5.86 g/t AuEq from 202.85 metres; 11.55 metres at 3.79 g/t AuEq from 168.35 metres (BOXC-5); 33.30 metres at 1.52 g/t AuEq from 73.40 metres (BOXC-7) including 18.15 metres at 2.13 g/t AuEq from 87.45 metres; 55.00 metres at 1.22 g/t AuEq from 8.50 metres (BOXC-10), including 9.50 metres at 4.65 g/t AuEq from 54.00 metres; 21.50 metres at 1.15 g/t AuEq from 75.30 metres (BOXC-12).

Collective is a copper, silver, gold and tungsten exploration company with projects in Caldas, Colombia. The company has options to acquire 100% interests in two projects located directly within an established mining camp with 10 fully permitted and operating mines.

The company’s flagship project, Guayabales, is anchored by the Apollo system, which hosts the large-scale, bulk-tonnage and high-grade copper-silver-gold-tungsten Apollo porphyry system. The company’s 2024 objective is to expand the Apollo system, step out along strike to expand the recently discovered Trap system, and make a new discovery at either the Tower, X or Plutus targets.