Collective Mining issues comment rejecting allegations

Collective Mining (CNL) issued a statement rejecting “all of the false and misleading allegations” made in a short thesis report published yesterday. The company claims the following: that since Collective was incorporated in 2020, the company has conducted its exploration activities on the Guayabales and San Antonio projects in full compliance with the Colombian legal framework governing mining and environmental activities. Specifically, that all work being conducted on its Apollo system within the Guayabales Project – including geological, geotechnical, hydrogeological, and metallurgical drilling – has been carried out responsibly and lawfully as the company assesses the technical and environmental feasibility of a potential future mining operation at Apollo. The company also announced that it has either purchased or entered into binding option agreements to purchase all of the surface rights covering the entirety of the known dimensions of the Apollo system and that the Apollo system does not overlap with any areas excluded from mining and, in fact, is located in a well-established mining camp, with ten permitted and operating mines within an approximate three-kilometer area. Finally, the company stated that two immaterial exploration applications have been temporarily put on hold by the authorities in accordance with common practice in Colombia in order to provide additional time for the mining authorities to request further environmental information from the company, and that these two exploration applications are not proximal to the Apollo system and are not material to the projects.