With funding closed and planning completed, Collective Mining (TSXV:CNL) has announced this morning that its maiden 7,500 metre diamond drilling program is not underway at its Guayabales Project. The project, located immediately along strike and northwest of Aris Gold’s Marmato gold mine, is the company’s flagship project in the country. 

After encountering abundant precious metal mineralization throughout the property during exploration, Collective moved quickly to begin the drill program. This includes identifying the five unique grassroots targets at Guayabales which include Donut, Box, Olympus, Victory, and ME. The five targets make up this 7,500 metre maiden drilling program which has now begun.

The program will consist of short, fanned holes measuring up to 300 metres from a single drill pad. The pad will cover various depths beneath the shallow underground workings to define the potential grade and extent of the mineralized system. Some drilling has already been completed, and the visual observation of that drilling has intersected porphyry breccia with a pyrite matrix overprinted by a quartz-carbonate-sphalerite vein stockwork associated with intense sericite alternation over intersection lengths of up to 250 metres. 

Donut is of particular interest to Collective and remains a first priority for the program. It has been traced along strike and to the west for at least 600 metres and is open in all directions. To test the strike extent of the target, the company will construct additional drill pads.

Ari Sussman, Executive Chairman of Collective Mining, commented on the news: “The commencement of drilling activities within the Guayabales project represents another important and exciting milestone in the Company’s evolution from early-stage explorer to outlining multiple large, continuous and mineralized porphyry, breccia, and high-grade vein systems. In total, we now have five distinct targets defined for first-pass drill testing over the next six months with more to come as we continue to explore and evaluate our highly prospective land package.”

As an exploration and development company working to identify and explore prospective gold projects in South America, this is Collective’s kickoff drill program that will begin the road ahead to discovery. The stock has remained steady since its IPO, and now investors will be looking to results from this maiden drill program for further guidance. 

The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a licensed professional for investment advice. The author is not an insider or shareholder of any of the companies mentioned above.