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查看配图Drill core from the Ramp Zone at Collective Mining's Guayabales project, about 198 km northwest of Bogotá. Credit: Collective Mining
Collective Mining (TSX, Nasdaq: CNL) shares jumped 13% Tuesday after the company reported a 154.3-metre gold intercept at Colombia’s Apollo project, its broadest high-grade interval yet in the deep Ramp Zone.
Hole APC174-D4 returned 12.44 grams gold per tonne and 11 grams silver over the interval, starting about 1,208 metres below surface, the company reported Tuesday. Apollo is part of the company’s Guayabales project, about 198 km northwest of Bogotá.
“This hole did not run out of gold; it ran out of rods,” Executive Chairman Ari Sussman said in a news release. “We believe the Ramp Zone is only beginning to show us its true potential.”
National Bank of Canada Capital Markets analyst Don DeMarco said the hole delivered Apollo’s strongest combination of grade and drilled length to date. The results were “hinting that the Ramp Zone could be bigger and higher grade than the maiden resource,” he wrote Tuesday.
Drill limits
Collective shares rose to $15.71 (US$11.50) by mid-Tuesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at about $1.5 billion. DeMarco maintained his outperform rating and $32 share-price target, citing the potential for a major mining district while cautioning that economic and feasibility studies are still ahead.
The drilling is testing whether Apollo’s deeper gold-rich zones could support underground mining alongside shallower material outlined for an open pit. Higher grades could strengthen that case, but Collective still needs an economic assessment to establish what it would cost to build and operate the project.
The main interval included 30.45 metres at 38.47 grams gold from about 1,339 metres below surface. That section returned substantially higher grades than predicted by the resource model, Collective said. The comparison applies only to the blocks crossed by the hole and doesn’t revise the resource estimate.
The hole finished in lower-grade mineralization outside the resource, returning a final 12.2 metres at 0.71 gram gold before reaching the rig’s drilling limit. Reported intervals are downhole lengths, with estimated true widths ranging from 60% to 100%.
Initial resource
Apollo’s initial estimate, effective Aug. 31, outlines 37 million indicated tonnes grading 1.38 grams gold and 24.4 grams silver per tonne, plus 0.14% copper and 0.011% tungsten trioxide. That contains 1.64 million oz. gold and 29 million oz. silver.
A further 48.2 million inferred tonnes grade 1.6 grams gold and 8.39 grams silver, with 0.03% copper and 0.002% tungsten trioxide, containing 2.47 million oz. gold and 13 million oz. silver.
The estimate separates material considered suitable for an open pit from two underground components, including the Ramp Zone.
Underground access
Collective expects to begin construction of the roughly 3-km exploration tunnel this month. The planned route would provide drilling platforms for the Trap and Plutus targets before reaching Apollo’s Ramp Zone, allowing the company to test mineralization from underground.
The company plans to release an updated resource between late next year and early 2028, incorporating about 100,000 metres of additional drilling, followed by a preliminary economic assessment. It has said this year’s planned 90,000-metre drill program is fully funded.
Collective is targeting an environmental licence application in the second half of next year.