Collective gold drills lift Ramp among ‘highest profile’

The first holes targeting part of the Ramp zone at Collective Mining’s (NYSE, TSX: CNL) Apollo deposit in west-central Colombia highlight Ramp’s potential as a main target in the development of Apollo. Shares rose.

Highlight hole APC140-D5 cut 23.1 metres grading 4.61 grams gold per tonne and 11 grams silver from 396.1 metres depth, Collective reported on Wednesday. Hole APC140-D6 returned 26.9 metres at 1.23 grams gold and 12 grams silver from 139 metres downhole, including 5.3 metres grading 37.04 grams gold and 28 grams silver from 384 metres downhole. All new holes pierced the untested western edge of Ramp.

“Returning multiple high-grade gold intercepts . . . clearly demonstrates that the Ramp zone is not only now present on the western side of Apollo, but that the system is capable of producing high-grade gold in this location,” Collective executive chairman Ari Sussman said in a release. “The potential to expand this high-grade zone along strike and to depth is substantial.”

Collective shares gained more than 8% to $24.57 on Wednesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at almost $2.3 billion. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of $11.70 to $30.12.

Suited for underground

In late March, BMO Capital Markets laced superlatives on the project, saying it expected the market to continue to reward the company for more high-grade results.

“We are encouraged by the consistent and thick high-grade intercepts, all well above reasonable cutoffs for underground mining,” BMO mining analyst Andrew Mikitchook said in a note. “The Apollo and Ramp zones together are clearly one of the highest profile discoveries globally and Collective remains positioned to add more value for shareholders.”

Head office move

The Ramp zone results come amid a productive spring for Collective as it moved its executive headquarters from Toronto to Miami in March to be closer to its Colombian operations and tap into more United States’ financial resources. That month it also drilled 83.75 meters grading 21.14 grams gold and 17 grams silver in the Ramp zone.

Guayabales, located in a historical gold region lies 80 km south of Medellín and next to Aris Mining’s (TSX: ARIS; NYSE: ARMN) Marmato gold mine.

A third highlight hole in the western edge of Ramp, APC140-D7, returned about 12 metres grading 1.16 grams gold and 5 grams silver from 183.8 metres depth, including 8.6 meters at 6.51 grams gold and 13 grams silver.

“We view these results as positivefor Collective shares,” mining analyst Ovais Habib at Scotiabank said in a note on Wednesday. “The exploration results from the western margin of the Ramp Zone came back with high grades potentially signaling the company’s belief that there could be high grade mineralization across the Apollo breccia.”

So far only 385 metres of the estimated 1,500-metre circumference of the cone-shaped Apollo breccia body have been drill-tested for Ramp Zone style mineralization, Collective said. That style is characterized by albite, muscovite and sericite alteration, and gold associated with anomalous bismuth and tellurium values.

This year, the company plans to drill all of the body’s circumference with seven rigs, for a total 14 rigs operating at Guayabales before the end of the second quarter.

Shallow, high-grades

Meanwhile, drilling targeting untested areas of the shallower part of the Apollo breccia body returned a noteworthy result of 232.7 metres grading 1.44 grams gold and 22 grams silver from 106.5 metres depth in hole APA151-D1.

And hole APA151-D2 cut 160.1 metres at 1.81 grams gold and 14 grams silver from 123.45 metres downhole.

Collective plans up to 100,000 metres of drilling at Guayabales this year and has drilled 177,000 metres across the Guayabales and San Antonio projects.