Collective’s Apollo 4.1Moz gold resource: mine design and economics lens for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Collective Mining shares fell 9.4% to $21.11 in Toronto after publishing a maiden resource for the Apollo deposit in Colombia totalling 4.1 million oz. gold within 37 million indicated tonnes at 1.38 g/t Au, 24.4 g/t Ag, 0.14% Cu and 0.011% WO₃ plus 48.2 million inferred tonnes at 1.6 g/t Au. The conceptual open pit carries a 3.4:1 strip ratio, while the high-grade Ramp zone hosts 6.04 million inferred tonnes at 5.2 g/t Au and 7.72 g/t Ag, with metallurgical testwork reporting 95% gold and 85% copper recoveries using conventional processing. National Bank and Scotiabank both model Apollo as a combined open-pit/underground operation, with National Bank suggesting conceptual throughput of 10,000–15,000 t/d and c.250,000 gold-equivalent oz. per year, pending a PEA targeted for H2 2028.
Technical Brief
- Open-pit portion holds 22.5 Mt indicated at 1.02 g/t Au, 30.2 g/t Ag, 0.20% Cu, 0.015% WO₃.
- Pit-constrained inferred inventory totals 25.9 Mt at 0.6 g/t Au, 8.98 g/t Ag, 0.03% Cu, 0.003% WO₃.
- Ramp zone below 1,000 m elevation contains 1.29 Mt indicated at 4.52 g/t Au, 9.85 g/t Ag, 0.03% Cu.
- Additional Ramp inferred tonnage of 6.04 Mt at 5.2 g/t Au and 7.72 g/t Ag drives value density.
- About 79% of the interpreted 1.5 km Ramp circumference remains too sparsely drilled for current resource inclusion.
- Post-cut-off Northern Breccia Extension hole returned 141.4 m at 4.75 g/t Au, including 38 m at 15.25 g/t.
- May Ramp drilling included 23.1 m at 4.61 g/t Au and 11 g/t Ag, plus 5.3 m at 37.04 g/t Au.
- Metallurgical tests using conventional flowsheets achieved 92% Ag, 85% Cu and 70% WO₃ recoveries in addition to Au.
- Development schedule targets an underground exploration adit start this quarter, environmental licence filing in H2 2027, feasibility by mid‑2029.
Our Take
With Apollo’s 5.4 million oz gold-equivalent inventory in Colombia and Agnico Eagle Mines already having invested $63.4 million, Collective Mining now sits alongside other Latin American copper-gold-silver growth names in our database such as NGEx Minerals’ Lunahuasi, which is also being advanced on the back of high-grade breccia-style intercepts.
The presence of tungsten trioxide in both the indicated and inferred resources at Apollo is unusual among the 590 copper-gold pieces in our coverage and, if metallurgical recoveries near the quoted 70% are confirmed at scale, could give the project additional strategic appeal as a critical minerals play rather than a pure gold story.
National Bank and Scotiabank maintaining target prices of $32–$35 despite the share-price pullback suggests the market is discounting the conceptual open-pit and Ramp scenarios more heavily than the brokers, even though 79% of the interpreted 1.5 km Apollo system circumference is still not densely drilled, leaving scope for further resource growth to close that gap.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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