TNM Drill Down: Collective tops assays again with Guayabales project in Colombia

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the best gold assays of the March 8-15 period. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width as identified by data company Mining Intelligence.

Projects in South America, Canada and Africa led the week’s best drill results. Collective Mining (TSX: CNL) returned to lead the week after two wins in January from its Guayabales project in Colombia. New Found Gold (TSXV: NFG, NYSE: NFGC), another regular visitor to the table, reported bonanza-grade drill results at the Queensway project in Newfoundland. Galiano Gold (TSX: GAU; NYSE: GAU) said it found a new high-grade zone at the Asanko gold mine in Ghana.

Collective Mining

Diamond drill hole APC-93 cut 560.1 metres grading 1.2 grams gold per tonne for a grade x width value of 672 from 127.3 metres depth at the Guayabales project in Colombia’s Caldas department. The drill hole was designed to expand the Apollo target to the north and then intercept the Olympus Deeps porphyry system, Toronto-based Collective said on March 12.

Olympus lies about 120 metres east of discovery hole APC88-D1 which cut 202.3 metres at 2.16 grams gold equivalent, the company reported in January. A broad zone of high-grade and continuous mineralization was intersected across the Apollo brecciated porphyry system, it said.

“Our exploration goal for the year is to evolve the Guayabales project into a major mining camp,” Collective executive chairman Ari Sussman said in a release. “Apollo continues to flex its muscle as an evolving world-class high-grade and bulk tonnage gold-silver-copper-tungsten system.”

The Trap and Olympus Deeps porphyry systems have potential for significant scale and the company intends to make another new discovery at the Box, Tower, or X targets, Sussman said.

Collective began the project, next to Aris Mining’s (TSX: ARIS; NYSE: ARMN) Marmato mine, in September 2021.

Assay results for the final 455.9 metres of drill hole APC-93 are still pending, the company said. The core is being batched for assay with hole OLD-1, which was also designed to test the Olympus Deeps porphyry system.

New Found Gold

At New Found Gold’s Queensway project, diamond drill hole NFGC-23-1820 cut 16.7 metres grading 36.2 grams gold for a grade x width of 604 from 45.3 metres depth, the company reported on March 13.

Also on the Iceberg target, drill hole NFGC-23-1827 returned 14.7 metres at 33.7 grams gold from 87.5 metres down-hole, the company said.

Queensway, accessible via the Trans-Canada Highway 15 km west of Gander in the province’s interior, has been exploring two fault zones – the Keats-Baseline and the Appleton – for the last five years in a 500,000-metre drill program, now expanded by 150,000 metres. No reserve has been declared.

The just-released assays were of holes drilled on the Keats-Baseline fault zone from west to east to better test how a secondary set of gold veins and associated structures intersect at Iceberg, the company said.

“Infill and definition drilling at Iceberg and Iceberg East have provided us with a comprehensive picture of the near-surface expression of this portion of the fault,” Melissa Render, vice-president of exploration, said in a release. “The fault has demonstrated several times over that it is a very important structure.”

Galiano Gold

In Ghana, Galiano reported hole ABPC23-224 cut 45 metres grading 12.4 grams gold per tonne from 191 metres depth for a grade x width of 560. It’s part of a new high-grade zone below the Abore pit at the Asanko gold mine that it operates in a joint venture with Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI; JSE: GFI), Galiano said on March 12.

The new zone will help Galiano convert inferred resources below the pit shell to the indicated category and evaluate the potential to expand the pit. The company plans to update the Abore resource and reserve estimates and provide 2024 production and cost guidance after drilling is completed next month.

“The results of this program are expected to affect the size and geometry of the Abore reserve pit,” Matt Badylak, Galiano’s president and CEO, said in a release. “The impact this will have on mineral reserves and ore delivery in 2024 is currently being evaluated through pit optimization and redesign.”

Disclosure: The Northern Miner Group is owned by Earthlabs, which has been an investor in New Found Gold.