Collective Mining grows Guayabales gold zone in Colombia

Collective Mining (TSXV: CNL; US-OTC: CNLMF) reported “robust” drilling results nearly doubling the width of the Main Breccia discovery at its Guayabales gold project in Colombia.

Diamond drill hole APC-14 at the Apollo target extended the southern dimension of the Main Breccia discovery, increasing its overall width by 90%, Collective Mining said in a news release. It showed 1.36 grams per tonne gold equivalent (0.81 gram gold per tonne, 13 grams silver and 0.2% copper) over 47.5 metres from 84.3 metres depth, and 2 grams per tonne gold equivalent over 194.3 metres from 197 metres.

The Main Breccia has now been traced for up to 385 metres along strike, 190 metres in width and to 500 metres depth, versus prior dimensions of 350 metres by 100 metres by 500 metres.

“APC-14 is a very important hole as it not only confirmed that the Main Breccia comes directly to surface in the southern portion of the system but also extended the size of the system to the south and to the north,” executive chairman Ari Sussman said in the news release. “Subsequent step out drill holes either recently completed or currently underway appear to have intersected significant extensions to the size of the system in the north.”

The Guayabales project in the historic Colombian gold mining department of Caldas, about 300 km inland from Barranquilla on the Caribbean, is the latest undertaking from the same team that developed and sold Continental Gold’s Buriticá mine in Colombia for $1.4 billion in 2019. Guayabales lies next to Aris Mining‘s (TSX: ARIS) Maramato gold project with 19.7 million tonnes of 3.2 grams gold and 2.2 million ounces of proven and probable reserves at 3.2 grams per tonne gold.

Toronto-based Collective Mining is also drilling on its other venture, the San Antonio gold project about 10 km from Guayabales. Sussman said there would be a further update soon on the subsequent Apollo drilling.

Diamond drill hole APC-12 cut 2.88 grams per tonne gold equivalent across 237.7 metres from 191.35 metres down-hole, the highest-grade intercept to date within the Main Breccia discovery at Apollo. The intercept was broad, showing consistently high-grade copper-silver-gold mineralization, the company said.

Collective has three drill rigs on site in the midst of a 20,000-metre diamond drill program. The results of four Apollo holes were released on Thursday following those from seven earlier holes. Besides Apollo, the Olympus, Donut and Trap targets have reported assays. Scout target results were deemed subpar and two other targets have yet to be drilled, Collective said.

Apollo hole APC-11 intersected a grade range of 11.9 grams per tonne gold equivalent to 3.48 grams per tonne gold equivalent over widths ranging from 0.55 metres to 1.35 metres. Mechanical problems with the rig prevented full APC-13 hole drilling, but it did find 10.25 grams gold per tonne over 3.9 metres from 128.95 metres and 16.99 grams per tonne gold over 2 metres from 141.2 metres, the company said.

The Breccia consists of quartz porphyry clasts and a matrix of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pyrite, all overprinted by carbonate base metal veins, the company said.

“The Main Breccia discovery at the Apollo target continues to deliver robust results demonstrating remarkable continuity and grade over significant drilling widths,” Sussman said.