According to Mining.com, Canadian exploration enterprise Collective Mining further expanded the scale of the Apollo deposit at its Guayabales project in Colombia, and plans to accelerate drilling to complete up to 100,000 meters of drilling before the first resource announcement by the end of next year.
Collective announced on Wednesday that several drill holes intersected favorable mineralization. Hole APC105-D5 intersected 144.3 meters grading 1.86 g/t gold, 13 g/t silver, 0.04% copper, and 0.15% zinc from a depth of 324.45 meters. Within this interval, from 371.4 meters depth, it intersected 48.55 meters grading 4.38 g/t gold, 21 g/t silver, 0.04% copper, and 0.28% zinc. This hole extended the western boundary of the deposit by 50 meters.
Among the 13 holes reported, hole APC103-D5 intersected 22.6 meters grading 3.87 g/t gold, 4 g/t silver, 0.02% copper, and 0.03% zinc from a depth of 287.3 meters.
The company stated that the Apollo deposit extends over 1,300 meters vertically, but the deep part remains unconstrained. The Ramp zone in the lower part of the Apollo zone is expected to further expand the ore body.
“These results enhance confidence in the mineralization model, with the ore body scale continuously expanding,” said BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Andrew Mikitchook in an investment note. “The mineralization discovered at Ramp increases investor interest. We are closely watching the assay results; the first resource estimate for the Apollo deposit is expected in Q4 2026.”
Well Funded
Collective Mining reported that this month it raised 140 million Canadian dollars through a 125 million Canadian dollar equity transaction and a 15 million Canadian dollar private placement with Agnico Eagle Mines. At the Guayabales and nearby San Antonio projects, the company has deployed 10 drill rigs for drilling operations.
“Drilling at Apollo continues to add value, expanding the ore body scale and increasing grades,” said the company’s Executive Chairman Ari Sussman in a news release. “My primary focus is on exploration, and I am most eager to see what the Ramp zone beneath the Apollo zone looks like; we are confident that the Ramp zone will be the engine for the entire Apollo system.”
Guayabales is located approximately 80 kilometers south of the capital Medellín, near Aris Mining’s Marmato Deeps gold mine, one of Colombia’s oldest gold mines. The area benefits from highway access, power infrastructure, and a trained local workforce, capable of supporting Collective’s around-the-clock drilling and development work.
Collective Corp. from Toronto, led by the former management of Continental Gold, discovered and built the largest gold mine in Colombia. The company has completed 142,000 meters of drilling at Guayabales and San Antonio. At the Apollo deposit alone, 102,000 meters of drilling have been carried out.
Breccia Complex
The Apollo and Ramos sections form part of a large, multi-stage porphyry-breccia complex. This mineralizing system is located within the Middle Cauca gold belt, a highly prospective Miocene magmatic arc that has already yielded gold deposits such as Marmato, La Colosa, and Buriticá.
The Apollo deposit, the most advanced discovery in the Guayabales project, is a composite of porphyry and breccia-type mineralization systems. The orebody begins at the surface and extends vertically for more than 1,300 meters. It occurs within a series of breccias and porphyry intrusions, distributed along a northwest-southeast trending fault.
The breccia contains sulphides, primarily pyrite, chalcopyrite, and molybdenite, along with minor tungsten mineralization. Gold occurs either in its native state or associated with sulphides, while silver is generally found in fine veins and disseminations.
The rock assemblage includes andesite and intrusive rocks, cut by hydrothermal breccia veins. Alteration types include potassic and propylitic alteration. Overall, this indicates high-temperature porphyry overprinted by hydrothermal alteration.
Ramos Section
Geologists at Collective Corp. believe that Ramos, beneath the Apollo section, is the source of heat and fluids driving the hydrothermal system. Continued deep drilling may reveal a large, vertically extensive porphyry core.
Drilling and geophysical surveys suggest it acts as a conduit for vertically oriented porphyry-style stockwork and disseminated sulphides, overprinted at higher levels by the breccia-style Apollo structure. Compared to the shallow breccia, this section is characterized by intense potassic alteration (mica-magnetite) and elevated copper and tungsten content.
Together, Apollo and Ramos form a vertical mineralization series of gold, silver, copper, and tungsten: near-surface, widely distributed breccia bodies gradually transition downward into high-temperature porphyry veins and disseminated orebodies.
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