Mr. Ari Sussman reports

COLLECTIVE MINING DRILLS BEST INTERSECTION TO DATE AT APOLLO RETURNING 106.35 METRES AT 9.05 G/T AUEQ WITHIN 497.35 METRES AT 3.01 G/T AUEQ

Collective Mining Ltd. has released the assay results for three drill holes designed to test the potential of newly modelled broad and high-grade subzones and fill in block model gaps within the Apollo system. Apollo is the most advanced discovery made to date within the company's multitarget Guayabales project in Caldas, Colombia.

Highlights:

• Drill hole APC104-D5, which was designed to intercept the same high-grade subzone discovered in hole APC104-D1 at a deeper elevation, intersected 106.35 metres (m) at 9.05 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent (AuEq) within 497.35 metres at 3.01 g/t gold equivalent. On a grade accumulation basis (grams times metres), APC104-D5 yielded 1,499 g/t gold equivalent and is the best hole drilled to date at Apollo.
• The Apollo subzones are broad mineralized high-grade areas with multiple and coalescing mineralized structures within the breccia host rock. The company recently started to drill test for potential subzone targets throughout the Apollo system, and to date three holes have successfully tested the first of a series of subzone targets and confirmed that when drilled at an orthogonal angle, the true high-grade nature of the mineralization is realized. The company believes that continued drilling of subzone targets within Apollo has the potential to raise the overall grade and size of the system.
• Assay results for two additional holes, aimed at filling in gaps in the block model, returned broad and high-grade intercepts, with APC104-D3 hitting 351.35 metres at 2.00 g/t gold equivalent and APC104-D4 intercepting 176.40 metres at 3.15 g/t gold equivalent.

The company currently has six drill rigs operating as part of its fully financed 60,000-metre drill program for 2025, with four rigs drilling at Apollo, one at the Trap target and another rig at the San Antonio project. A seventh rig has been mobilized to the site, with drilling anticipated to ensue in March.

The 2025 objectives for the portion of the drilling program targeting the Apollo system are:

• Drill test newly modelled high-grade subzone targets scattered throughout the top 1,000 vertical metres from surface to improve the grade profile (and size) of the system;
• Grow the overall dimensions of the system by expanding vertically and laterally the recently discovered high-grade Ramp zone;
• Test the northern extension potential of Apollo at shallower elevations.

Approximately 108,000 metres of diamond drilling has been completed to date at the Guayabales project, including 72,500 metres at Apollo. There are currently nine drill holes awaiting assays, with results for the majority of these holes expected prior to the end of Q1 (first quarter) 2025.

Ari Sussman, executive chairman, commented: "The geology of the Guayabales project is truly remarkable, with the Apollo system being the shining light in a very bright sky. We are rapidly building confidence in the high-grade subzone model, excited to continue drilling these subzone targets for the foreseeable future and confident that this targeted drilling will improve the grade of Apollo. The intercept in drill hole APC104-D5 highlights a spectacular high-grade, broad mineralized subzone, which is still open in all directions, and we are looking forward to expanding this zone shallower and deeper with upcoming drill holes. This is just the first in a series of potential multiple high-grade subzones to be drill tested that have been modelled throughout Apollo."

Details:

• APC104-D5, which was collared from mother hole APC-104D, was drilled in a southwest direction below previously announced hole APC104-D1 in order to test for vertical continuity of the high-grade subzone mineralization at depths between 30 metres and 100 metres deeper in the system. As a reminder, drill hole APC104-D1 intersected 150.55 metres at 6.16 g/t AuEq within 534.40 metres at 2.70 g/t AuEq (see news release dated Dec. 16, 2024). At 147.35 metres down hole in APC104-D5, the hole orthogonally crossed a 106.35-metre zone of intense mineralization including areas with semi-massive to massive sulphide consisting of pyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite filling the matrix of the breccia host rock and crosscutting veins before entering more typical mineralization commonly seen in the Apollo system. Assay results for hole APC104-D5 are as follows:
  • 497.35 metres at 3.01 g/t gold equivalent from 147.30 metres, including:
    • 106.35 metres at 9.05 g/t gold equivalent from 147.30 metres;
    • 24.85 metres at 25.42 g/t gold equivalent from 209.60 metres.
  • Toward the end of the drill hole, a new high-grade area was discovered at the footwall contact between the Apollo breccia body and country rock, which assayed 15.00 metres at 5.39 g/t gold equivalent. Follow-up drilling to chase this contact zone is being planned as part of the 2025 program.
  • On a gram-times-metre basis, APC104-D5 is the highest-grade intercept ever drilled at Apollo, yielding 1,499 g/t gold equivalent. To date, the company has drilled 17 gold equivalent accumulation intercepts at over 1,000 grams times metres at Apollo.
• Holes APC104-D3 and APC104-D4 were designed to infill portions of the internal block model, with both holes intersecting bulk and high-grade mineralization related to multiple zones of CBM veins. Additionally, drilling modestly expanded the Apollo block model to the southwest by 15 metres, with assay results as follows:
  • 351.35 metres at 2.00 g/t gold equivalent from 98.05 metres, including:
    • 83.15 metres at 4.06 g/t gold equivalent from 103.60 metres;
    • 17.20 metres at 3.52 g/t gold equivalent from 250.20 metres;
    • 19.25 metres at 3.05 g/t gold equivalent from 359.10 metres;
    • 16.80 metres at 3.09 g/t gold equivalent from 399.00 metres;
  • 176.40 metres at 3.15 g/t gold equivalent from 161.15 metres, including:
    • 55.05 metres at 5.06 g/t gold equivalent from 182.50 metres;
    • 27.95 metres at 5.05 g/t gold equivalent from 278.25 metres.

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 company's flagship project, Guayabales, is anchored by the Apollo system, which hosts the large-scale, bulk-tonnage and high-grade gold-silver-copper-tungsten Apollo system. The company's objectives are to improve the overall grade of the Apollo system by systematically drill testing newly modelled potentially high-grade subzones, expand the Apollo system by stepping out along strike to the north and expanding the newly discovered high-grade Ramp zone along strike and to depth, expand the Trap system, and drill a series of newly generated targets, including Tower and X.

Management, insiders and a strategic investor own approximately 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 the NYSE American and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol CNL, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the trading symbol GG1.

Qualified person (QP) 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 of the Society of Economic Geology (SEG).

Technical information

Samples were cut by company personnel at Collective Mining's core facility in Caldas, Colombia. Diamond drill core was sawed and then sampled in maximum two-metre intervals, stopping at geological boundaries. Drill hole core diameter is a mix of PQ, HQ and NQ depending on the depth of the drill hole.

Core samples have been prepared and analyzed at ALS laboratory facilities in Medellin, Colombia, and Lima, Peru. 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 QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) program.

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