Collective Mining Ltd. (TSX: CNL) has begun drill testing Orion, a target defined this year roughly one kilometre east of the company’s flagship Apollo system at the Guayabales project in Colombia.
Orion came out of generative fieldwork and a systematic review of the ground surrounding Apollo. Mapping outlined a 350 metre by 300 metre mineralized footprint in argillic- and sericite-altered quartz diorite carrying moderate to high density gold-bearing quartz-iron oxide sheeted and stockwork veining.
Surface geochemistry backs the target up. Rock samples returned gold up to 7.43 g/t, silver to 230 g/t, copper to 0.26% and molybdenum to 85 ppm, while soils ran as high as 4.00 g/t gold and 21 g/t silver.
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Orion sits where the Apollo-Marmato corridor meets the east-west Gustavo Fault and a set of parallel splays, and a discrete magnetic susceptibility high underneath the target has been interpreted as a possible intrusive source at depth. Drilling will test whether that source is mineralized, which is the difference between a vein-scale occurrence and something on the scale of Apollo.
It also sits 300 metres east of the Plutus target and 2 kilometres northwest of Aris Mining’s Marmato mine.
“Orion is particularly compelling because of the combination of sheeted and stockwork veining, strong gold and silver surface geochemistry and a discrete magnetic anomaly all occurring within a favorable structural setting,” said executive chairman Ari Sussman, who added that thirteen rigs, a strong treasury and commodity prices make this “the time to push hard in exploration.”
A second early-stage target, Victory, follows in the fourth quarter. A fresh look at two holes drilled there in 2022, which hit high-grade precious metal veining alongside potassic alteration with chalcopyrite and molybdenite, has generated a new porphyry-breccia target.
The step-out work runs alongside a 90,000 metre program funded by US$93.7 million in cash. Apollo itself continues to grow, with holes reported in August extending the breccia 100 metres north and returning 141.40 metres at 4.88 g/t gold equivalent from a depth of 924 metres.
Collective Mining last traded at $22.46 on the TSX.
