Gold Summary for Feb. 11, 2014
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David Palmer's Probe Mines Inc. (PRB) continued its climb, rising 21 cents to $3.01 on 697,000 shares. The stock is at a new all-time high, thanks to yesterday's pleasing round of assays from the Borden gold property in Ontario. Probe plans to continue drilling at Borden through the winter, in hopes of proving a high-grade gold zone extends under Borden lake. Probe has yet to announce a resource estimate for the high-grade area, but newsletter writer John Kaiser has been talking up a potential 1.4 million ounces. The company has a 4.3-million-ounce resource estimate for Borden's lower-grade zone, but that will not support profitable production unless gold returns to $1,300 an ounce. A mine in the high-grade area would also encounter some obstacles, such as the 200-metre wedge of land owned by two lumber companies. Probe has been in negotiations for the past several months. With luck, the company can close the deal before Borden results prompt a handful of juniors to come knocking and pay more, eager to get in on an area play.
President Palmer, a career geologist, has been with the company since 2003. He spent his first seven years at Probe looking for chromite in Ontario's Ring of Fire area. In 2010, Probe acquired the Borden property as a side story, but the first assays ended up more promising than results from Probe's Black Creek chromite property. Soon after, the company turned its full attention to gold. Mr. Palmer owns 1.12 million shares, the value of which has risen by $2.1 million since last spring. For his hard work in 2013 -- which included selling 7.5 million shares, or 9.9 per cent of the company, to Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM: $37.57) -- Mr. Palmer received $350,000 in salary and bonus. This is many raises and 10 times higher than the $35,000 he received in 2004, his first full year with the company.
