Jan 8 2020
Probe Metals Inc., a leading Canadian gold exploration company, is happy to announce that the 2020 exploration program has been initiated at the Val-d’Or East project located close to Val-d’Or in Quebec.
ImageCredit/Shutterstock: Phawat
We anticipate another pivotal year for the project as we expand on the successes achieved during 2019. The project has grown rapidly since our first exploration programs in 2016, doubling the gold resource in successive estimates, yet we have still only scratched the surface for exploration. In the past three years we have explored less than 5% of the area of the project and have already delivered a multi-million-ounce resource with multiple new discoveries.
David Palmer, President and CEO, Probe Metals Inc.
Palmer continued, “We believe we have confirmed our initial hypothesis that the Val-d’Or East area has the potential to host deposits on a scale similar to west Val-d’Or, which has produced more than 30Mozs of gold. Our goal in 2020 is to continue unlocking ounces in this underexplored half of one of Canada’s most productive mining districts.
“We will be working hard for our shareholders in 2020 as we continue to establish the Company as one of the preeminent gold explorers in Canada,” Palmer added.
2019 Recap
The 2019 drilling operation mainly focused on extending the present gold resources, whereby the inferred resource changed into Indicated and Measured categories and the latest exploration targets tested.
The year 2019 proved to be an extremely successful year as Probe Metals increased the gold resource by more than twofold—that is, 2,293,500 inferred ounces and 866,330 Indicated and Measured ounces—and also introduced the first Measured-category ounces to the project.
Apart from enhancing and expanding historic gold resources, Probe Metals have successfully made some new discoveries close to the historic resource zones, such as the recent Courvan trend. This trend contributed 770,000 Ozs (Inferred category) to the 2019 resource estimate of Probe Metals and the previously producing Monique mine located to the east.
A large part of the drilling program focused on and around the three gold trends, that is, Monique, Courvan, and Pascalis. The most prominent drilling outcomes came from the Courvan trend with high-grade intercepts. This newly delineated trend returned 3.9 g/t Au over 30 m and 9.6 g/t Au over 9.1 m, enclosing the historic Bussiere Mine that was last mined in 1943.
In addition, a recent gold zone was identified southeast of the Former Monique open pit, where the discovery hole graded 7.6 g/t Au over 10.0 m. The Pascalis gold trend revealed robust open-pit potential, with positive drill outcomes all through the year, such as 3.4 g/t Au over 17.8 m and 2.7 g/t Au over 20.7 m.
Furthermore, Probe Metals performed geological mapping, regional geochemical and geophysical surveys, as well as modeling, widening the possibility of its exploration programs within its property package spanning 334 km2.
Recent targets were discovered with high-power and contemporary geophysical surveys in regions where earlier conventional surveys did not detect any anomalies. Also, 3D Induced Polarization (3D IP) surveys were the most successful in delineating the disseminated sulfides hosting the gold deposits.
The 3D IP surveys are being extended in 2020, while a drilling budget of 15,000 m has been earmarked for testing new, potential discoveries, such as the new prospective parallel trends to Courvan and Pascalis gold trends.
2020 Exploration Program—Further Resource Growth and Project Advancement
The ultimate goal of the 2020 exploration program is to further expand and enhance the gold resource and, at the same time, continue to de-risk the project.
Post effective closing of oversubscribed financing in December 2019 and the latest positive exploration outcomes, Probe Metals has planned to begin an intense drill program and invest $13 million in exploration costs on its Val-d’Or East project in 2020.
The scheduled 2020 exploration program involves updated 3D geological models, 290 km of IP, 90,000 m of drilling, and the latest technical work to further develop the Val-d’Or East project.
The focus of the drilling program will be to expand and define the present gold resources of the Val-d’Or East project, also delineating the new potential gold deposits inside its regional landholdings. This year, four drills will be active on the Monique, Courvan, Pascalis, and Cadillac Break East properties.
Of the 90,000 m of drilling, Probe Metals has planned to drill about 55,000 m for expansion and exploration of resources, 15,000 m on regional exploration, and 20,000 m on infill drilling. The entire gold zones are known currently continue to remain exposed along strike and in-depth.
In addition, Probe Metals will continue to detect the latest targets on its regional land package using sophisticated geophysical methods, like high-power IP.
Parallel to the drilling program, Probe Metals will continue to further develop and de-risk the Val-d’Or East project with initial environmental baselining to enclose the region of the main Courvan and Pascalis gold trends, metallurgical testing on the currently known gold zones, as well as additional geochemical and geotechnical analyses.
In conclusion, the considerable success of Probe Metals in 2019 and its elaborate 2020 exploration program provide confidence to the company that it continues to develop its gold resources both at the regional and local levels.
Probe Metals is sufficiently funded from 2020 to 2021 to realize these objectives and will work on actively studying its extensive land packages.
The Val-d’Or East Project
In the last few years, Probe Metals has been consolidating its land position in Quebec’s highly potential Val-d’Or East region.
Being a district-scale land package, the Val-d’Or East project spans 334 km2 and represents one of the biggest landholdings in the Val-d’Or mining camp. It is host to Monique Mine, Bussiere Mine, and Beliveau Mine—three previously producing mines—and extends along with four regional mine trends, such as 14 km of strike length along with the prolific Cadillac Break property.
The Val-d’Or East project is located in a low-cost and politically stable mining setting hosting various mills and active producers.
Gold resources contained in the Val-d’Or East project total 2,293,500 inferred ounces and 866,300 indicated and measured ounces.
Source: https://www.probemetals.com/