Mr. Ari Sussman reports

COLLECTIVE MINING COMMENCES DRILLING AT THE SAN ANTONIO PROJECT

Collective Mining Ltd. has commenced drilling at the San Antonio project, located in Caldas, Colombia. The company plans to drill a minimum of 2,500 metres and test three large gold-copper porphyry targets located within a well-defined 2.5-kilometre mineralized corridor.

The company currently has five drill rigs operating as part of its fully financed 60,000-metre drill program for 2025. Two additional rigs have been contracted, with drilling anticipated to begin in late January and February, respectively.

Ari Sussman, executive chairman, commented: "Shortly after going public in 2021, the company announced a bona fide grassroots discovery at the San Antonio project by drilling two very high-risk holes on the same section line at different dips into the Pound target, with each hole cutting more than 700 metres of mineralization from surface. Immediately thereafter, our attention shifted to the Guayabales project, leading to the discovery of the Apollo system, which has remained our chief focus ever since. With a strong treasury and an expanded operating team in place today, we are coming full circle and revisiting San Antonio. Being in Colombia this week and visiting the San Antonio project, I have been convinced by our team that we have a legitimate chance of finding a major gold-copper porphyry system. The size of the alteration zone and abundance of high-grade mineralization on surface is impressive. With drilling under way, we look forward to receiving assay results and using the data to vector towards the mineralized fluid source of what is clearly an exceptionally large system."

Details

Over the past year, the company's exploration team has reinterpreted historical data and completed an extensive surface mapping and geochemical sampling program at San Antonio, which led to the definition of a strongly altered and mineralized 2.5-kilometre corridor of interest. Within the corridor, three targets (named Pound, Real and Euro) have been prioritized for drill testing in the phase 1 program.

Diamond drilling has commenced at the Pound target, where previous drilling by the company in 2021 intercepted from surface 710 metres at 0.53 gram per tonne gold equivalent (SAC-08) and 750 metres at 0.41 gram per tonne gold equivalent (SAC-06) within a mix of brecciated porphyry quartz diorite and metagabbro country rock (see press release dated Oct. 27, 2021). Both holes cut increasing grades of copper at depth and bottomed in mineralization. Recent mapping and sampling have encountered widespread mineralization and have expanded the surface footprint of the highly altered system to 650 metres by 550 metres. The company believes that prior drilling may have discovered the pyrite halo of a copper-gold porphyry system with stronger mineralization potentially in close proximity.

New gold and copper soil anomalies have been outlined over surface areas exceeding 400 metres by 250 metres at the Real and Euro targets, respectively, and will be tested with reconnaissance drilling in Q1 2025. The following observations are highlighted:

• The Real target is located 400 metres to the northwest of Pound and is characterized by multiple gold and copper mineralized porphyry clasts hosted within breccia bodies.
• The Euro target is located one kilometre south of Pound and is defined by a coherent and coincident soil anomalies for gold (greater than 0.3 part per million), copper (greater than 100 parts per million) and molybdenum (greater than 20 parts per million). The anomalous area hosts zones of porphyry quartz and sulphide veinlets associated with strong sericitic alteration; this suggests the upper and/or peripheral portion of a porphyry system has been discovered.

About Collective Mining Ltd.

Founded by the team that developed and sold Continental Gold Inc. to Zijin Mining for approximately $2-billion in enterprise value, Collective is a gold, silver, copper and tungsten exploration company with projects in Caldas, Colombia. The company has options to acquire 100-per-cent interests in two projects located directly within an established mining camp with 10 fully permitted and operating mines.

The San Antonio project is located four kilometres east of the Guayabales project, which is anchored by the Apollo system and hosts the large-scale, bulk-tonnage and high-grade gold-silver-copper-tungsten system.

Management, insiders, a strategic investor, and close family and friends own 44.5 per cent of the outstanding shares of the company and, as a result, are fully aligned with shareholders. The company is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol CNL.

Qualified person and National Instrument 43-101 disclosure

David J. Reading is the designated qualified person for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed and verified that the technical information contained herein is accurate and approves of the written disclosure of same. Mr. Reading has an MSc in economic geology and is a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and the Society of Economic Geology (SEG).

Technical information

Rock, soils and core samples from the San Antonio project have been prepared and analyzed at SGS laboratory facilities in Medellin, Colombia, and Lima, Peru; and at Actlabs' laboratory facilities in Medellin, Colombia, and Toronto, Canada. Blanks, duplicates and certified reference standards are inserted into the sample stream to monitor laboratory performance. Crush rejects and pulps are kept and stored in a secured storage facility for future assay verification. No capping has been applied to sample composites. The company utilizes a rigorous, industry-standard quality assurance/quality control program.

We seek Safe Harbor.