Interview: Collective Mining’s Omar Ossma Talks About The Company’s Recent Successes & Ambitious Plans for 2025

Collective Mining (NYSE: CNL) is an early-stage mine in Caldas, Colombia near the town of Supía, that has been making some exciting discoveries regarding the mineralization that exploratory drilling is revealing. They recently discovered a high-grade gold zone called the Ramp Zone, and they plan a very aggressive drilling campaign for the coming year. CEO Omar Ossma spent a few minutes with Finance Colombia’s Executive Editor Loren Moss during CGS 2024, Colombia’s most important precious metals mining event, to talk about the mine’s progress and plans for the future.

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Omar Ossma of Collective Mining, and you guys just gave a fascinating presentation on the project that you are developing in Caldas. Collective is a fascinating company to me because it’s made up largely of executives who came out of the successful Continental project that you guys developed a few years ago. But now you have announced that you have a new project, as part of your drilling program- This year you are on track to complete 40 kilometers of drilling. Is that correct?

Omar Ossma: Yes, sir. We are hoping to do 40,000 meters of drilling. The good thing is that the 40,000 meters are going to end with very good news. We communicated a couple of weeks ago that we found a high-grade zone and something like 1,000 meters below the surface, which is very interesting. Apollo, our flagship discovery, has been evolving very nicely since 2022 when we first discovered it. And today, thinking back, in 2023 when we discovered Tungsten, and now 2024, we have this new area, the Ramp Zone, a high-grade area, a high-grade zone, it’s made Collective Mining enter into a very exciting phase of drilling and exploration.

Finance Colombia: Now, we are always excited to cover you. Tell me: Is it the ‘Ramp Zone’ or the ‘Trap Project’? The name of this discovery that you guys have made.

Omar Ossma: Okay, so, the Ramp Zone is part of the deep zone of Apollo. It’s not part of the Trap.

Maybe you saw in our presentation when we did, we had an image and we showed the different discoveries. You can see Apollo and Trap, and then you can see the valley. Trap and Ramp Zone are different.

They are two different discoveries. Ramp Zone is the discovery within the Apollo discovery. It’s the deep zone of the Apollo discovery, with the nice added to it, is that even though it’s a deep zone, it has the possibility conceptually to have a ramp. And that’s why we are calling it the ‘Ramp Zone.’

That can surface further on in the lower part of the geography. So that’s the interesting part. Conceptually, we are seeing something very interesting in the future of the mine with Apollo.

Finance Colombia: It looks like it would be easy access, because you can potentially build a tunnel to go under, and so, even though the tunnel would be horizontal, the way that the geography is, I’ve been down there, it would allow a lot easier access. You know, I was out at the last big project you guys developed a few years ago, and it was very difficult to get to. On the other hand, in this project, down near Supía, Caldas, there’s already road infrastructure, it’s a more populated area, it’s a developed area, it’s a safe area, it’s in Coffee Country. And one of the things I wanted to talk about is, you guys have historically had very good relationships. I remember during the previous administration I talked to the then Mayor of Supía, Caldas.

“We communicated a couple of weeks ago that we found a high-grade zone and something like 1,000 meters below the surface, which is very interesting.” – Omar Ossma

Omar Ossma: Yes.

Finance Colombia: And he was very glowing in discussing the way that you all were contributing to that area, as far as helping them, not just with mining, which, that’s always been a mining-friendly area, but in developing tourism and kind of social inclusion. And maybe you could talk about some of those projects and the relationships that you’ve built there in the area.

Omar Ossma: In principle for us juniors, geology sets the way.

And I think that geology has already helped us set the path into a very interesting development. Now, you can’t do that if you are not evaluating and evolving also into the social aspect of it. I know you visited our project under a different administration. In that time the Mayor, I know we had a very good relationship with him, we were supporting several of his programs, and several of our programs were focused more on what the community needed. And when we say ‘the community needed’ is what the government at that time had envisioned for the municipality. So we managed to sync our capabilities with the needs of the communities, and that’s how we started to work on the social side. Things have changed. In what way? Things have changed in that we have a new government in Office. With this government in Office, we have also been able to understand and sync ourselves into what he wants to do for the region. So, as you portrayed, when you talked to that Mayor.

He showed you that he was very hype because we were able to sync. That’s what we’re doing with this new government. This business is obviously about geology, but the geology without the social aspect about it, without the sustainability aspect about it, is not going to evolve. We have several programs. You said it yourself, we are in Coffee Country. We have one of the leaders in coffee helping us with an alliance. This is the National Coffee Federation.

We still maintain an alliance with the National Coffee Federation. It’s been instrumental in what Collective Mining is doing in the region. And I think that that’s part of the success: geology, plus a very sound sustainability program, with the major players and stakeholders in the region: the Coffee Federation; the government; the regional and local governments. And that, summed up, has allowed us to be in 2024 with Ramp Zone, with Apollo, with the Trap, and with a very, very exciting discovery.

Finance Colombia: One of the things I saw that struck me when I visited the site a lot of times, and not just in Colombia, but around the world, there’s a conflict between commercial miners and artisanal miners. But with you guys, I’ve seen that you’ve had a track record of success in this area. We visited the site that you guys have, the Apollo site, and these artisanal miners, local miners are waving at you and saying ‘hi’ and greeting. And you guys have seemed to and very few mines, I haven’t seen a lot of this- have worked to have a kind of collaborative and friendly relations, whereas in most cases there’s kind of a conflict or competition. How have you guys managed to maintain these relationships and kind of build alliances with these old- you know, because in Colombia we have hundreds of years of tradition when it comes to artisanal miners? How have you guys managed to obtain that?

            “Experience has taught us that artisanal miners are, in principle, the pioneer geologists.” – Omar Ossma

Omar Ossma: No? They are the first on-site, they are the first to identify what you see. So, they are not your counterpart, they are your ally.

You need to understand that. Usually, companies tend to feel that they have more competition with the artisanals than the possibility of alliances. We arrive at the site and we understand that they are pioneers and that they help us discover. Understanding that you need to involve them in your process. They’re already there, and they have economic expectations, they live from that, so it is important to be able to involve them. That has legal aspects, environmental aspects, health and safety aspects.

That makes it a bit uncomfortable for companies. When you manage to understand that there are ways to control those different aspects, you manage to evolve and work with the artisanal miners. What is our focus on artisanal mining? For starters, health and safety.

That’s our focus. I know that there’s a lot of legal jargon and ideas around it, but we need the artisanal miners to arrive safely at home, and we focus first on health and safety. And I think that they’re seeing that we are genuinely concerned about their safety, and that’s what you eventually saw at sight: It’s they are happy that there is somebody that is not putting conditions on them and first is trying to help them and try to make them safe and arrive. Once you have them safe, you can start talking about other necessary things, that you need to be in the legal part of the mining activity. We already solved the fact that you are operating in a better condition, so now let’s go and talk with the government and understand how we can liaise, how can you guys start working with all the legal requirements, and let’s power through. And for us, it has been instrumental moreover, that they are close to our discoveries, and with what they are also discovering, they help us see. So, there is a win-win in working with the artisans.

Finance Colombia: Another thing. And thank you, you’ve been very generous with your time, but I do have one other question. One of the things that- or observation, I guess I should say, that has impressed me: You guys have an international world-class team where you bring in the experts, the geologists, the finance people, the people that have access to capital markets and things like that. But you guys have stood out in developing Colombian talent. You, as the leader of the company, you’re Colombian.

Omar Ossma: Yes, sir.

Finance Colombia: I know that you also have a lot of companies that just fly in executives from other continents, or wherever, and there’s nothing wrong with that, you are bringing the best people that you can get. But you have not just, you know, you visit some mines, and it’s like, all the workers are locals, and then all the experts are from, you know, some other planet.

But I look at the geologists, and even though you bring in kind of world-class leaders, you develop Colombian geologists. So you know, we just saw a presentation from your technical people, and I’ve met a lot of not just senior people, but it looks like you put an effort in to develop, whether it’s on the business side or the technical side, you are developing talent. So it’s not just the workers, it’s not just the miners, but the actual leadership and the knowledge, the brain power. You seem to take seriously developing Colombians to be professionals, not just laborers.

Omar Ossma: No, indeed I appreciate the comment, for myself and the team. We have an advantage: Colombia has evolved in the last 25 years a lot.

I started in this business something close to 2008, so it’s been almost 17 years, and I can tell you that in 2008 you saw a lot of what you are describing, a lot of foreigners with a lot of experience in developing businesses, and we didn’t see that in Colombia. But it has evolved. It’s been 17 years since we’ve had people evolving into this business.

I am a lawyer, I started in this business 17 years ago, as we’re saying, and I’ve managed to learn a lot about the business. And I think it’s not just me, we are seeing that in several other companies and we have to start grasping the fact and the idea that we have very prepared people. Our discoveries are the result of our geologists. And they’re all Colombian. So it makes us very proud to be able to have that, and our geologists are very proud of what they’re doing and they put all into it. We have a very, very good team. And we all, most of us, come from past Continental. And Continental was an exciting project and it was a successful project. So there’s a lot that we learned there, a lot that we brought into Collective, the good and the bad, to understand what we had to do going into the future. So I appreciate your comment, Loren.

Finance Colombia: Absolutely.