Collective Mining Maps Apollo Growth, Targets Colombia Production by 2031

Key Points

• Collective Mining is advancing its Guayabales project in Colombia, with Apollo as the cornerstone deposit. The company plans to begin a roughly 3-kilometer exploration adit, enabling underground drilling and access to additional targets.
• Management is targeting substantial Apollo resource growth, from more than 5 million combined indicated and inferred gold-equivalent ounces today to 7–8 million ounces in a future update and potentially 9–10 million ounces by the feasibility-study stage.
• The company aims to secure environmental permits by mid-2028 and potentially reach a construction decision and production by 2031. A conceptual operation could process 15,000 tonnes per day, though illustrative production figures are not formal forecasts.

Collective Mining NYSEAMERICAN: CNL outlined plans to advance its Guayabales project in Colombia, with Chief Executive Officer Ned Jalil highlighting continued resource expansion at the Apollo deposit, development of an exploration adit and a targeted path toward production in 2031.

Speaking at Noble Capital’s Emerging Growth Virtual Equity Conference, Jalil said the company’s leadership team has extensive operating experience in Colombia. He noted that members of the team previously formed Continental Gold, whose Buriticá mine was sold to Zijin Mining in 2020 for more than $2 billion.

Jalil said Collective Mining had more than $90 million as of June 30 and that management and other insiders held more than 45% of the company’s shares, according to the presentation.

Colombia Focus and Guayabales Infrastructure

Collective Mining operates in Colombia’s Caldas Department, where its two projects are San Antonio and Guayabales. Guayabales is the company’s cornerstone project and is located near the Marmato mining operation, which Jalil described as having been mined for more than 500 years.

The company emphasized Guayabales’ access to existing infrastructure, including the Pan-American Highway, power lines, the Cauca River and nearby towns that could provide labor during any future construction phase. Apollo, the principal discovery at Guayabales, is approximately 1.75 kilometers from Marmato, Jalil said.

Jalil also discussed Colombia’s mining and permitting environment, stating that the country’s permitting process is designed to provide licenses within 12 months of an application. He pointed to a U.S.-Colombia memorandum of understanding concerning critical minerals and rare earths, as well as planned government efforts to promote foreign investment.

Apollo Resource Expansion

In September, Collective Mining released its maiden resource estimate for Apollo. Jalil said the deposit includes a near-surface open-pit component as well as underground zones that could potentially be mined using sublevel open stoping. He said the company envisions using paste backfill to return processing waste underground.

The CEO said indicated open-pit resources carry grades above 2 grams per tonne gold equivalent, while the deeper Ramp Zone contains grades in the range of 4 to 5 grams per tonne gold equivalent. He said the company has drilled only about 20% of the Ramp Zone and sees substantial remaining potential for expansion.

Jalil said the company has identified additional mineralization in previously undrilled portions of the planned pit area. If incorporated in a future resource update, he said this material could reduce the strip ratio by converting areas previously classified as waste rock into ore blocks.

Collective Mining’s current indicated and inferred resources at Apollo total more than 5 million ounces when combined, Jalil said. The company is targeting a future resource update of between 7 million and 8 million ounces and ultimately aims to reach roughly 9 million to 10 million ounces by the feasibility-study stage.

Apollo also contains copper, silver and tungsten mineralization. Jalil said the U.S. government has contacted the company about potential processing of tungsten in the United States and possible support related to the critical mineral.

Processing, Exploration Adit and Mine Planning

Jalil said metallurgical testing has been completed across six composites representing different areas of the deposit. The company currently envisions a processing flow sheet incorporating gravity recovery, flotation and carbon-in-leach processing.

• Copper-rich material would be processed through flotation to produce a copper concentrate containing gold and silver credits.
• Material with limited copper content, including material from the Ramp Zone, would be directed to a carbon-in-leach circuit to produce gold and silver doré.
• A gravity circuit would recover a portion of the deposit’s gold that Jalil described as gravity-recoverable.

The company expects to begin work on an exploration adit in the coming weeks. Jalil said the approximately 3-kilometer tunnel is expected to take about two years to reach Apollo, while providing underground drilling access to other targets along the route, including Trap, Trap East and Plutus.

Trap is viewed as a potential complementary source of feed for a future processing plant. Jalil said a conceptual 15,000-tonne-per-day operation with a 3-gram-per-tonne head grade could potentially produce about 500,000 ounces annually, with approximately 50,000 ounces potentially coming from Trap. These figures were presented as an illustrative scenario rather than a formal production forecast.

The company expects Apollo’s open pit to provide early mine feed while underground development proceeds. Jalil said the operation could later blend higher-grade underground material with open-pit material before transitioning to a fully underground, 15,000-tonne-per-day operation as the pit is depleted.

Next Milestones

Jalil said Apollo resource growth remains Collective Mining’s top exploration priority. The company has two drill rigs assigned to Trap and Trap East and a third mobile rig that may be deployed to targets including Orion and Emmy.

Over the next year, investors should watch drilling results from the Ramp Zone and shallow mineralized halo, along with engineering and processing updates that will support permitting work, Jalil said. Collective Mining expects its next resource update toward the end of the following year, or potentially early in 2028, followed by a preliminary economic assessment.

The company plans to apply for an environmental license and targets having the license and permits in hand by mid-2028. Jalil said this timeline could lead to a feasibility study, construction decision and potential production by 2031.

About Collective Mining (NYSEAMERICAN:CNL)

Collective Mining Ltd. is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on discovering and advancing precious- and base-metal deposits in Colombia. The company's activities include exploration, geological evaluation, drilling, resource definition and technical studies aimed at determining the development potential of its properties.

Collective Mining's principal asset is the Guayabales project in the Caldas mining district of Colombia. The project hosts several mineralized systems, including the Apollo system, and is being evaluated for gold, silver, copper and associated polymetallic mineralization.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.