South Africa police standoff with illegal gold miners escalates
The police sealed off access to the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein several weeks ago to deny the miners access to food and other essentials.
Probe Metals has released the results of 20 drillholes completed along the Courvan gold trend within its Val-d’Or East property in Quebec. The expansion drill results from the release suggest several new high-grade discoveries.
At the Creek zone, deeper expansion drilling returned intercepts such as 7.5 metres of 14.8 g/t gold (“the richest drill intercept ever at Courvan”); 3 metres of 14.4 g/t gold and 1.6 metres of 23 g/t gold. The discovery intercepts are from five structures, and from depths of 350 to 675 metres.
Highlights from near-surface expansion work at Creek include 5.1 metres of 6.9 g/t gold from 278.2 metres and 9 metres of 2 g/t gold starting at 353 metres.
These latest results will be incorporated into an upcoming resource estimate for the property, expected this year
Near-surface drilling around the former Bussiere mine hit 13 metres of 7.5 g/t gold from 164.9 metres; 11.9 metres of 5.3 g/t gold starting at 130 metres and 52.6 metres of 1 g/t gold from 47.4 metres. According to the release, the best results from this area are from the northern extension of the Bussiere mine system.
These latest results will be incorporated into an upcoming resource estimate for the property, expected this year.
“The drill results we released today for Courvan are some of the best we have seen for this project and speak to the tremendous exploration potential of Val-d’Or East, however, as we continue exploration in 2021, one of our key goals is to advance the project towards development, with a focus on improving the quality of ounces that will form the basis of our PEA,” David Palmer, Probe’s president and CEO, said in a release.
Barry Allan of Laurentian Bank Securities has a C$5 target and ‘buy’ rating on the stock. The mining analyst writes that “of the 20 holes drilled and released only one hole was reported as having no significant value (NSV), which is a testament to PRB understanding of the different but related mineralizing systems being drilled.”
The 435-sq.-km Val-d’Or East project includes three past-producing mines (Beliveau, Bussiere and Monique) with two known parallel gold trends, Courvan and Pascalis.
Based on an update from September 2019, total measured and indicated resources at Val-d’Or East stand at 14.6 million tonnes, grading 1.85 g/t gold, for a total of 866,300 gold ounces. Additional inferred resources include 37.9 million tonnes, at 1.96 g/t gold, for a further 2.4 million oz. of gold.
Probe also expects to table a preliminary economic assessment of the project in the first half of 2021.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
