Probe Mines quietly doubles share price

Since October 1 Probe Mines (PRB-V) has shot up from 60¢ to $1.32 per share – largely on speculation that the junior may become a takeover target for its coveted 100%-owned Black Creek chromite deposit.

Black Creek lies between the Black Thor deposit of Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF-N) and the Big Daddy deposit, owned by a joint venture involving Cliffs, Spider Resources (SPQ-V) and KWG Resources (KWG-V).

But now there’s another reason to take a closer look at the junior.

On Nov. 2, Probe unveiled assay results from the first phase of a drill program at its Borden Lake project in Ontario, about 15 km from Chapleau, and within 1 km of Highway 101, which links the towns of Chapleau and Timmins.

Eight holes were drilled to test a surface gold showing and six of them ended in mineralization, intersecting thick zones of continuous gold mineralization representing about 250 metres of potential strike length, the company says.

The zone remains open in both directions along strike and at depth and airborne geophysics indicate the zone continues for more than 1 km.

Hole 2 intersected 91 metres averaging 2 grams gold per tonne, while hole 4, collared at the same setup as hole 2 but drilled in the opposite direction, returned a 78-metre interval averaging 0.7 gram gold per tonne.

Sixty metres to the southeast, hole 5 returned an 86-metre intercept grading 1 gram gold and hole 6 contained a 78-metre interval averaging 0.9 gram gold.

Within all of these broad mineralized intercepts at least two significant higher-grade zones were identified with intervals returning up to 5.3 grams gold over 5 metres including samples of up to 15.5 grams gold over 1 metre.

Gold mineralization in the discovery area appears to be associated with a broad zone of disseminated sulphide, and is characterized by a lack of quartz veining.

The horizon can be traced from airborne geophysics over roughly 1.2 km within Probe’s property and has been identified from surface to a vertical depth of 117 metres.

Hole 8 was drilled on a parallel structure to the discovery zone and intersected a 0.7 metre-wide quartz vein that returned an assay of 2.4 grams gold per tonne.

Hole 1 was terminated at 38 metres, before intersecting the gold zone, because of concerns over drill placement and orientation. But it will be drilled again in the next phase of the program to identify the hanging wall contact.

No significant work has been done in the Borden Lake area to date and second-phase drilling will start as soon as a drill is available.

Probe is also planning additional airborne and ground geophysical surveys. The initial focus will be untested airborne targets that were identified in the first VTEM program. Drill testing of satellite targets will begin once ground geophysical results have been received.

Probe has the right to earn a 100% interest in the Borden Lake property by making cash and share payments over three years.

In addition to Borden Lake and its Black Creek deposit, Probe has an option on the Cree Lake gold property in the Swayze belt of Ontario and an option-joint venture agreement with Lake Shore Gold (LSG-T) on its Bristol Township gold project next to Lake Shore’s million-plus oz. gold deposit.

Probe also maintains a 5% net smelter royalty on a portion of Agnico-Eagle Mine‘s (AEM-T, AEM-N) Goldex Mine near Val d’Or, Quebec, which began production in 2008.

The company has about $4 million in its treasury and 36.6 million shares outstanding.