Collective Mining Announces Expanded Drill Program Following $63.4 Million Financing

Collective Mining Ltd. (NYSE: CNL) (TSX: CNL) has announced its plans for an expanded drill program following the completion of recent financing totaling $63.4 million CAD (approximately $46.7 million USD based on the exchange rate at the time of the announcement).

According to the company’s announcement on April 2, 2025, Collective Mining’s treasury now exceeds $78 million USD, which the company states will fully fund an expanded 70,000-meter drill program in 2025. The revised program will deploy up to ten diamond drill rigs across the Guayabales and San Antonio projects, representing the largest drill program in the company’s history. Additionally, the company intends to accelerate baseline environmental, hydrological, and metallurgical studies to expedite the permitting process in the future.

Ari Sussman, Executive Chairman of Collective Mining, spoke about the Apollo System, the company’s primary discovery at the Guayabales Project, which has emerged as a large-scale, bulk tonnage, and high-grade system resulting from grassroots exploration. He further stated his belief that Apollo represents a significant discovery within the Guayabales Project and that continued drilling could lead to additional discoveries. Sussman also noted the potential porphyry indications at the San Antonio Project as a positive development.

Guayabales Drill Program Overview

For the remainder of 2025, up to eight drill rigs will be focused on the Guayabales Project with the following objectives:

• Apollo System: Up to seven rigs will be operational:
  • Up to three rigs will test recently discovered, high-grade sub-zones to potentially increase the overall grade of the system. Previous drilling in these sub-zones has reported bulk tonnage and high-grade intercepts, including drill hole APC104-D5, which intersected 106.35 meters at 9.05 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq) within a larger 497.35-meter interval grading 3.01 g/t AuEq.
  • Up to three rigs will test the recently discovered Ramp Zone, where multiple high-grade intercepts have been reported, including drill hole APC105-D1, which intersected 75.80 meters at 8.01 g/t AuEq, including 21.00 meters at 24.16 g/t AuEq. The company has secured additional rigs capable of drilling up to 2,000 meters, expected to arrive in June, to test the Ramp Zone at greater depths.
  • Two smaller rigs will conduct drilling from the surface to a depth of 150 meters within the Apollo system. This program aims to expand and define shallow mineralization and test drilling gaps within the block model, where current spacing is up to 100 meters. Prior shallow drilling yielded high-grade intercepts from the surface, including APC-35, which intersected 86.55 meters at 4.85 g/t AuEq (3.52 g/t gold, 16 g/t silver, 0.12% copper, and 0.34% tungsten oxide).
• Tower, ME, X, and Trap Targets: Up to two diamond drill rigs will test these targets throughout the year:
  • One rig is currently drilling at the Tower target, a new grassroots-generated target located west-southwest of the Apollo system. Precious metal-rich outcrop samples have been found within three multi-mineral soil anomalies. Initial assay results are anticipated in late Q2 2025.
  • One rig is being mobilized to the ME target, situated midway between the Apollo system and Aris Mining Corporation’s Marmato mine to the southeast. Five shallow holes drilled in 2023 at the ME target intersected a precious metal-rich breccia system, with APC-81 intersecting 111.25 meters at 1.00 g/t AuEq. A recent reinterpretation suggests a potential for Ramp Zone-style mineralization (gold-silver-bismuth-tellurium) at deeper elevations within the ME target. Drilling is expected to commence towards the end of April 2025, with initial assay results anticipated in early Q3 2025.
  • The company plans to mobilize a single rig in the second half of 2025 to test the grassroots-generated X target for the first time. Mapping and surface sampling have identified a large, heavily altered breccia body with a precious metal-rich soil and rock chip anomaly adjacent to a copper and molybdenum-rich soil anomaly. The X target reportedly shares surface characteristics similar to the Apollo System, located approximately 1,100 meters to the north.

San Antonio Project Overview

Drilling commenced at the San Antonio project in late January 2025 as part of an initial 2,500-meter program.

• One rig is currently drilling at the Pound Target, with a second rig scheduled to begin drilling before the end of April 2025. Two initial holes drilled in 2021 at the Pound Target intersected long intervals of modestly grading, precious metal-dominant mineralization from the surface, with both holes ending in mineralization. Drill hole SAC-8 intersected 710 meters at 0.53 g/t AuEq. A recent reinterpretation of the Pound Target suggests that the previous drilling intersected the outer phyllic pyrite halo of a potentially significant porphyry system. Both holes showed increasing copper grades with depth, and the copper/zinc ratio indicates a vector toward a potential porphyry source at depth. Two new diamond drill holes were completed in 2025, with a third underway. The first hole, SAC-10, intersected pyrite-dominant, phyllic mineralization before being terminated due to rig capacity. The second hole, SAC-11, intersected pyrite-dominant mineralization in altered metagabbro rock, transitioning into quartz and chalcopyrite porphyry veins at 500 meters depth, with copper-bearing chalcopyrite mineralization increasing in intensity until the end of the hole. Minor amounts of bornite were also noted toward the end of the hole. The company is encouraged by the visual logging, which suggests the mineralized metagabbro is near a porphyry intrusive. Assay results are pending.

Collective Mining Ltd. was founded by the team that developed and sold Continental Gold Inc. to Zijin Mining for approximately $2 billion in enterprise value. Collective Mining is focused on gold, silver, copper, and tungsten exploration in Caldas, Colombia. The company holds options to acquire 100% interests in two projects located within an established mining camp with ten fully permitted and operating mines. Management and insiders reportedly own approximately 33.4% of the company’s outstanding shares. Collective Mining is listed on the NYSE American and TSX under the trading symbol “CNL” and on the FSE under the trading symbol “GG1”.

Targets at the Guayabales Project to be Drilled in 2025. Photo credit: Collective Mining.