Collective Mining Hits 154 Meters of 12.6 g/t Gold Equivalent at Apollo

0:15Trevor Hall: All right, everybody, welcome back in to Mining Stock Daily. Love talking about impressive drill results and collective mining. They've had a few impressive drill results coming out of the Apollo deposit within the Guayabalas project in Colombia. But this morning's news release really was somewhat of a jaw dropper. Quick note, collective mining does trade on the NASDAQ and the TSX with the symbol CNL. The company did publish new drill results coming out of the ramp zone below the Apollo Apollo deposit, 154.3 meters of 12.6 grams per ton gold equivalent. And it actually ended in what appeared to be more high-grade mineralization.

1:07Trevor Hall: Happy to talk with Detective Chairman Ari Sussman once again. Ari, you've had a few drill results in your day. How does this one compare with all them collectively well with the pun of collectively this is the best hole that we have have drilled at at collective mining um at least in terms of when you when you look at it in gram times meter or grade accumulation right this was just under 2 000 gram meters um so that is our record hole um very amazing hole you know i i was been waiting patiently for this assay to come back for more than three months. You know, the labs have, as you know, for the industry have been quite slow because I've seen this core, I saw this core and it was impressive.

1:56I mean, you just had, I think it was 136 instances of visible gold along that interval that our team logged. Okay. So a lot of little VGs, you know, we knew there was going to be good grade, but obviously until the truth machine, which is the assay result comes back, you really don't know. And we're pleasantly happy with this result. It's our best hole and more to come. I mean, you know, I've seen core, you know, it's in our press release. So it's not like I'm selectively telling you things, Trevor, I've seen core from other holes. You know, there's, there's, there's quite a lot of visible gold in, in ramp.

2:32And, you know, I think, you know, it's, it's becoming clear that we're going to find mineralization all the way around the circumference of the breccia. We're already on our way. I mean, we've been hitting and I think we're going to hit more. So it's very exciting. And I'll maintain what I've said before many times. I believe strongly that, you know, ramp is going to turn into millions, plural of ounces of gold once it's all said and done. And the Apollo system, I believe if I'm right on the latter part, what I just mentioned, I think the Apollo system can grow to 10 plus million ounces, right?

3:08We're already more than, slightly more than halfway there in our mineral resource. And there's been like 50 ,000 meters of drilling since that resource cutoff date. And, you know, today is going to add ounces, period, right? Yeah.

3:22Trevor Hall: I was going to talk about, you know, this has implications on that already published and filed maiden resource estimate. The release says grades came in more than 75 % above the block model and the 30 meters at 39 grams that you reported sits in blocks. the resource had at about one gram. So yes, huge implications. What does that tell you about how the maiden ramp model was built, Ari? And does it change how you'll class? I assume it's going to have to reclassify what ramp will host next time you publish a resource. Yeah, so we're pushing towards another resource update the end of 2027 or early 2028, depends on drill speed.

4:03Look, I've said many times, if you just take the geometry where the resource sits. And as soon there's no growth, we obviously know there's lots of growth outside of it, the boundaries. I think that is going to go up materially, right? Because when you do an estimate, which was almost all inferred, you have to constrain individual intercepts, constrain the high grade, because any QP that does an estimate is scared of smearing and then being wrong and having to backtrack later. So we're happy it came out conservatively. But look, I think you're going to see this happen if we drill through the block model where it's poorly drilled, there's a chance we're going to find very high grades.

4:45And so this happened in this instance. And based on visuals, it will happen in upcoming holes whenever we get the assays. You know, but just to make it clear, the resource, the block model that the resource is within, so it's only part of it. the block model covered about 20 percent of the circumference of the breccia the breccia body cylindrical roughly in shape so there's another 80 percent of area that we are testing where this could in theory grow and we have hits already showing it's growing and within that 20 percent i think we're going to go up in ounces on top of all of that right we only tested in the the mineral resource, the deepest intercept in the ramp portion only covered 350 meters vertical.

5:39If you look at Ares Mining at Marmota, our next door neighbor, it's just over a mile away. Their reserves cover 750 vertical meters and open. I like to say these systems aren't siblings, but they are cousins. Okay. I like to think ours is better just because we have more grade because the host rock is more porous. But, you know, I think we have as good a chance as any is doubling the vertical dimension of our system. And I actually suspect that both Marmoto and Apollo, you know, will go down a lot longer, right? That's the nature of these intrusion-based systems. So the future is bright. We're a growing big story.

6:26and how big we get is a function of how fast and how efficient we can drill. 13 rigs on site turning and, you know, we have good productivity and relatively low cost. We're lucky.

6:39Trevor Hall: You mentioned that the drill ran out of rods at the bottom of this hole inside mineralization, but outside of that resource. And you said the company interprets this as potentially entering a new mineralized shoot already. And so let's kind of paint us a picture of what this means. Are we saying ramp as one continuous ring or several chutes? And does this change kind of your interpretation of, you know, of ramp going forward? Fortunately, we can look at our neighbor, Eris Mining, right? So we understand the model, right? You're going to have low-grade mineralization kind of everywhere, but very high-grade chutes.

7:21And almost all the gold is found within these chutes. In our case, as you can see from the results, they're quite broad or thick. So these aren't little vein shoots. These are wide shoots, right? I mean, today we announced 154 meters of continuous mineralization. How do we, why do we interpret that we were probably going into another shoot? It's simply when, although we say, hey, we're hosted in a breccia, it's the type of breccia. so the ramp fluids like to congregate and high grades in two types crackle breccia or angular breccia okay so we were going into crackle breccia when this mineralization started to come back and unfortunately we're using a a man portable rig believe it or not can drill that deep and so it ran out of power right or rods basically we couldn't go any deeper but we have track mounted rigs on site, more coming.

8:16And if you read in the press release detail, our goal in 2027 is to drill down to sea level. Okay. So it's at zero meters, right? And the top of Apollo is about 2 ,100. So we intend to test this system over about two vertical kilometers, you know, by the end of next year. And let's see what we find. I, I, I'm hoping, I don't know. I'm hoping that we will find mineralization all the way down to sea level. And in a year from now, we'll be talking about, I wonder if it goes deeper and how we'll only ever know that from underground once the tunnel that we're about to start building gets there. Yeah.

8:55Trevor Hall: Well, you don't have to wait very long for more news out of RAM because you have 17 holes from there still pending. And you did mention hole 180-D4, 19 occurrences of visible gold, hole 180-D3. you're seeing some she light here Ari what and you know just with the visuals that you are seeing I mean obviously there's more reasons to be continued optimism with ramp I guess you could say without actually knowing the assays so I'm of those two holes well I like them well okay so let's start with the one I like less okay 180 d3 we definitely hit we had visible gold and we had visible she light for those that don't know that's the mineral that hosts tungsten this is the first time we've ever found she light deep okay it shouldn't be a huge surprise because we're in a reduced system a reduced intrusion related gold system and and and tungsten is a reduction related mineral typically so we found it um that intercept looks good i you know i'm expecting to have good grade.

10:07It's not horribly wide. You know, I, for my eyeball, when I saw that core, maybe it's 15 meters ish, something like that wide. So, but it should be a good hit. The other one, 180d4, I'm more excited about because it's, I don't know, 30 to 40 meters wide based on the eyeball looking at it. And, and it's got all the, the, the, the heavy alteration of ramp. So we, we, we know we're in ramp, not just from the host rock, but from all bite alteration. Like literally the core is bleached white. Okay. And it was intense there. And obviously, as you mentioned, 19 instances of visible gold is a good sign.

10:43There'll be gold there for sure. Let's get the assays. But I think that will be a nice intercept based on the visuals.

10:51Trevor Hall: Do you maybe need to change how you assay for tungsten? Knowing that you're finding more deeper. Is there a point where maybe the silver tungsten material you're seeing shallower gets its own domain in the model rather than being blended into gold equivalent? So you do assay, you do, where you have tungsten, you do send it off for a different type of assaying because a standard lab assay doesn't do it justice. You tend to get the wrong results. So there is a way to assay for it. So we do that, right? So it's a longer process because we have to send all the core for the standard assay. And then once it's finished, they send off the portion with the tungsten to another area of the lab for separate process.

11:35But no, I mean, look, the tungsten's a byproduct. You know, it's going to, in a production scenario, it will likely have a small circuit dedicated to tungsten. Because it's she-light, it's very coarse. So you'll run the material where the tungsten is through gravity. You'll separate the she-light or tungsten bearing mineral by weight, you know, simply by gravity. and then you'll let that go through flotation. I don't know what size that'll be, like a tiny circuit, maybe 300, 400 tons per day for the tungsten, and then obviously a far larger plant. In fact, we're aiming to build a 15 ,000 ton a day mine here, subject to obviously positive feasibility study in the future, but that is our plan.

12:19So it's going to be a big mine, right? And we think it's going to be able to produce on a gold equivalent basis at a big rate on an annual basis.

12:28Trevor Hall: You did talk about starting construction of this exploration added into ramp zone. So three kilometers. So it's, you know, it's a little lengthy, Ari. But that's set to begin here shortly. That's going to be important because, you know, two, two and a half kilometer holes are exciting and all. But that's not something you want to continue to drill for the years to come. So this added is going to be really important for the longevity of ramp. Give us a sense of what it's going to take to get that really going. And, you know, obviously you are going to go through a few interpreted mineralized areas on your way to ramp.

13:06Trevor Hall: So what does the next year hold for this exploration at it? So the exploration at it is scheduled to start later this month. Okay. From past experience, as we were talking about offline, I expect it to start pretty badly. This is what happens with underground development. and then you build, you learn where the tricks are, you know, in the rock, and then you start to build a routine. And as you build that development routine, you start to pick up speed. Okay. I think peak efficiency would be getting to about an advanced rate of five meters a day. It will start at a fraction of that. The nice thing about this adit is, or this tunnel, is although it's going to take two years to reach, fully reach Apollo, right?

13:51We're going to be underground with drilling potential for trap starting in q1 right so we will be reached very quickly an access area to drill the greenfield trap east target okay so i don't know if we'll hit there there's never been a drill hole there um in fact we're going to put a surface hole into it almost starting later this month we're going to start drilling there because we want to make sure there's something there before we drill it from underground but by by the second quarter of next year we will be in a position to drill trap from underground the trap main system where we have had some impressive hits including 632 meters at 1.1 gram per ton starting just at surface right so um we like it you know if we get lucky at trap i think we'll ultimately be able to introduce a mineral resource estimate into the apollo estimate which will is due at the end of next year, early 2028.

14:50So that would be a bonus. I don't know if it'll happen, but, and then the question is when we move past trap with this tunnel, we'll eventually get to Plutus where we've hit already with sparse drilling, but what about in between? There's never been any exploration. I don't know. Maybe we'll get lucky and make a discovery on the way. You know, I normally, I would laugh at myself for making that kind of statement, but given the endowment of, of, of precious metals are really gold in this belt, right? It wouldn't be an enormous surprise if we make a discovery in this tunnel, somewhere between Trap and Plutus in the, in the, in the area that has had no exploration so far.

15:27So a lot to look forward to. Last point I'll make from past experience, underground development is, is a, a moment where you slap your forehead and say, why didn't I think about that? Everything becomes obvious after the fact once you're underground. So hindsight, right, is really what tunneling is about. And I've learned from the past that you're going to learn good, good things from this tunnel. And in big systems with lots of veins and things like this that we have, the surprises tend to be positive. So I suspect there'll be some good news coming from this in the not-too-distant future.

16:05Trevor Hall: Okay. You and I will continue to chat about that development, obviously, in the months to come here, especially as things kick off with the construction of that adit. Let's kind of turn the page here real quick, Ari, because last week you had other drill results out. Like I said, you and I hadn't chatted in a while, but you did publish new results from the shallow halo zone, 14 meters, six and a half grams in oxide and 67 meters of just over one and a half. So back in June, you and I chatted, you were talking about shifting the pit center east so you don't have to take the Western lip. Is that kind of the base case now for the next resource or does an Eastern pit change where the plant and the added portal sits at all?

16:52No. So, okay, I'll go backwards. No, it doesn't because the thinking we have for the pit in the future is that whatever you mine in the pit will drop down an ore pass chute to the exploration at it, which will become a production tunnel. And then we'll go out along that tunnel to the plant. The plant is being built by the Pan-American Highway quite a ways away from the pit. Well, three kilometers, give or take, right? Better to use an ore pass chute and a conveyor than it is truck, right? Material. So it'll be much simpler, cost efficient, et cetera. Sure. The pit has already shifted east. So you recall when we reported the mineral resource, the strip ratio of that pit was down to 3.4 to 1.

17:32Okay. And the shallow halo zone, what we're really is, is we're drilling the area within that pit is the breccia body and then the material surrounding the breccia body. The shallow halo zone is the material surrounding the breccia body. I mean, it's obviously not exciting like ramp in terms of grade, but keep in mind, and everyone should keep in mind any result that we announce in the shallow halo zone drilling over 0.3 grams per ton gold equivalent which was the cutoff grade for the estimate for the resource in the pit we're taking that strip ratio and lowering it okay we're turning waste into mineralization so this makes a lot of sense i don't have a crystal ball to know what the ultimate strip ratio will drop too, but it will be, I suspect in the twos somewhere, twos to one instead of 3.4 to one, you know, and that, that will be obviously great because that means less waste and more, more material to go through the plant ultimately.

18:36And if we find in the Northern part of this shallow halo zone, we're finding attractive grades. I mean, a lot of hits of North of a gram, um, that's good grade, especially for this, the shallow halo zone material, which by the way, majority of it is an oxide or partially oxidized rock. So very, very simple. I mean, bulldozer to lift, right? It's not going to require much blasting. Yeah.

19:00Trevor Hall: Yeah. I do want to talk to you about the market here. I mean, obviously we've seen a lot of volatility in the gold market, gold equities, developers, explorers taking the brunt of that selling here in the last couple of weeks here, Ari. Two months ago, you announced that mineral resource estimate. Now you have probably one of the best, if not one of the best hole in the company history. And despite the stock being up 13 % today off that news, it's still relatively down. What's the honest read on why this market isn't paying for growth? Or do you think anything changes in the coming weeks? Look, if you look at historical precious metal bull markets, okay, there are three drawdowns typically over a 10 to 12 year period.

19:56Okay, so we are living in, and I believe nearing the end of the first drawdown. Okay, and if you look at these drawdowns, the gold price will correct. somewhere between 30 to 40 % from its peak. And the equities, unfortunately, will correct kind of 40 to 60%. Okay, many are more in the 60 % range in this drawdown than the 40 % range. The majors have held up better, obviously, right? I mean, that's typical what you see. So it's not that the market's not paying for growth. It's that the market is facing either margin calls, typically from retail investors, or redemption selling from institutions.

20:35It will come to an end. I suspect that we're very close to the end of this drawdown. And if the cyclicality of our space decides to repeat itself, I think we're going to be looking at a very different market come January and February of 2027. It's already November the 3rd. So we're talking a couple of months away. let's get through tax loss selling season, especially in Canada, you know, and, and, and redemption selling and funds rebalancing their portfolios to look fresh for 2027. But I think there's good times ahead. And for what it's worth, maybe it's not worth much. I have started putting money to work over the past few days in the market and I haven't done it in a long time in the metal space.

21:21So, so I'm now putting money to work. I'm not buying, not going, jumping in at, you know, with 100 % of my buy in day one, I'm scaling in, right? Looking for good entry points, but there's a lot of attractive entry points out there right now.

21:35Trevor Hall: I know there's obviously an ongoing drill program at Guayabalas here, Ari, but is there a window for management insiders of Collective to add to their positions anytime coming up? So I just added because I exercised options last week, I didn't sell. So I took them down and put up real cash to do that. We're unfortunately, because of the horrible lab delay and because of the visuals, we tend to be in positions of blackouts more than not, which I hate. The good news is, is that the industry has slowed down because of the correction. So drilling is going to slow down and the labs have increased or are increasing their capacities.

22:23In fact, our lab in Peru that we use, ALS, will be doubling their capacity in the coming days, I think, this month sometime. So I think that bottleneck that a lot of companies are complaining about, that'll be in the rearview mirror come December. And then there'll be lots of opportunities for management teams to come in and buy stock, including our industry.

22:44Trevor Hall: Has it been like a regional bottleneck? I mean, because of, you know, South American countries changing the politics and really opening up is, are you seeing more of a bottleneck in South America than you say you would be in North America and the U.S. and Mexico? No, it's worse in North America and Canada. It's more backed up because there's more companies drilling. You know, the problem, the problem in South America, you know, at least for us is we're comfortable using ALS from a QAQC perspective. They are the best. They handle the most volume. and when you're advanced in a project like we are at Apollo with the with the discovery with the deposit you can't go and switch labs midway through because it creates a nightmare of QAQC you know for the company for for a QP that's estimating a resource for an engineering firm that does a study etc so you you have to continue down the path you're on but look you know they They're slow to react labs, but they're reacting and they're growing.

23:43And, you know, good for them. The money's there. The samples are there. And let them grow their businesses. The problem is you can't just flip a switch and double capacity a lab because you have to train people. Right? It's a lab. Right? It's not a drill where you can get more helpers to help operate the drill. Right? This takes time.

24:04Trevor Hall: Right. Right. All right. All right. Good to talk to you. Hopefully, you and I chat again the next couple of weeks, once or twice before yours. And we'll probably have some more updates. Obviously, drilling continues to progress at Apollo in actually a big year of 2027. So we'll talk more about that and what to expect. Appreciate your time. And we'll talk to you again soon, Ari. Thank you so much. Good talking, Trevor. Look forward to it. Yep. All right, everybody. That's your update from Collective Mining. Once again, trading on the NASDAQ and the TSX with CNL. they are a partner of the podcast.

24:36Trevor Hall: I'm also a shareholder of the company. So we'll be back here with more from Mining Stock Daily. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining Stock Daily and its affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.