04:46 PM EDT, 10/22/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Collective Mining ( CNL ) , trading near a 52-week high, after trade Tuesday said it discovered a new high-grade gold zone at the Apollo system on the company's Guayabales Project in Colombia.

Best results from exploration drilling into the zone included 57.65-meters testing at at 8.18 gold-equivalent grams per tonne, including 18.85 meters at 20.21 gold-equivalent grams per tonne.

The company noted the new discovery, dubbed the Ramp Zone, is thought to be the first intercept into a major new high-grade gold system at depth and can be classified as a partially reduced intrusion related gold, silver and copper system. Although the Ramp Zone begins at or near 1,000 meters below surface, the discovery hole is in close proximity to a conceptual underground access tunnel connecting Apollo to mining related infrastructure in a potential future development scenario for the project, the statement said.

"The fact that Apollo is now transitioning into a bulk zone of high-grade gold mineralization at depth is extremely exciting and will no doubt add materially to the mineral resource endowment of Apollo. The Guayabales Project and the neighbouring Marmato mine form a giant precious metal rich district which continues to yield new major discoveries. Equally exciting is that the Apollo system, which outcrops at surface, now boasts a vertical dimension of approximately 1,150 metres with further expansion dead-ahead," Ari Sussman, Executive Chairman, said.

Sussman added: "The company is planning an expanded drilling program to follow up on the Ramp Zone discovery with further details to be provided in due course."

Collective Mining ( CNL ) shares closed up $0.07 to $5.05 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, leaving it shy of a 52-week high of $5.10.