Probe Gold drills 4.2 g/t gold over 12.8 metres at Novador, Quebec
Probe Gold Inc. [TSX: PRB; OTCQB: PROBF] provided the latest results from the 2024 Courvan gold trend drill program on its 100%-owned Novador property, located near Val d’Or, Quebec.
Results from 30 drill holes, totalling 7,635 metres, have returned significant, near-surface, gold intercepts from surface to 150 metres of vertical depth at the Bussiere and Southeast deposits. The 2024 summer-fall drill program at Courvan targeted both resource expansion and condemnation drilling. The condemnation drilling program, which was focused east of the former Bussiere mine, revealed unexpected and significant gold-rich intercepts. In advance of follow-up drilling on the new discovery, the company will re-evaluate the Courvan 3-D model to refine its regional exploration model for the area.
Highlights: Near surface, gold zone discovered along the eastern area of the Courvan Southeast deposit with significant gold intersections grading up to 4.2 g/t gold over 12.8 metres (cut) (14.3 g/t Au over 12.8 metres uncut), including 224 g/t gold over 0.8 metre.
Drilling just east of the Southeast deposit also yielded up to 14.4 g/t gold over 3.5 metres (cut), with notable intersections of 56.5 g/t gold over 1.0 metre (uncut).
At the Bussiere deposit, expansion drilling revealed thick gold zones, including an intersection of 1.5 g/t gold over 45.0 metres.
Results from the condemnation drilling to the east of the Bussiere deposit intersected parallel gold zones grading up 17.8 g/t gold over 3.0 metres (cut) (31.2 g/t gold over 3.0 metres uncut), including 90.4 g/t gold over 1.0 metre, highlighting significant exploration upside remaining for the Novador project;
A 50,000-metre infill drill program aimed at resource conversion is currently under way to support the upcoming prefeasibility study.
Dr. David Palmer, president and CEO, stated: “The results from Courvan once again highlight the substantial exploration potential that remains within the Novador project. The recent discovery of thick, high-grade gold mineralization just 150 metres from our development areas suggests strong potential for further exploration breakthroughs as we advance our work on new targets around Novador.
“Our condemnation program, designed to evaluate areas for future development infrastructure, is also uncovering new mineralized zones, further underscoring Novador’s capacity for remarkable growth. The Val d’Or East area has proven to be one of Canada’s most fertile gold exploration belts and we look forward to continued success. To accelerate our timeline toward production, we have initiated a 50,000-metre drill program aimed at completing resource conversion, which will set the stage for our prefeasibility study anticipated in early 2026. Additionally, we are expanding our team to ensure we fulfill our strategy of concurrently advancing permitting, the prefeasibility study, resource growth and new discoveries, at Novador and the new satellite properties. We anticipate that 2025 will be a highly productive and successful year.”
These latest drilling results continue to improve the company’s 3-D model of Courvan. Mineralization is characterized by a series of shallow-dipping east-west gold-bearing veins situated next to shear zones that cut the Bourlamaque granodiorite batholith. The gold veins encountered are primarily composed of sulphide-bearing quartz-carbonate-tourmaline and gold is typically associated with centimeter-scale pyrite masses within the veins, as well as zones containing 1-5% finely disseminated pyrite in the host rocks. Gold mineralization intersected in the volcanics is associated with a shear zone and sulphide-bearing quartz-carbonate-tourmaline veins. The Bussiere and Southeast deposits remain open laterally and at depth.
Since 2016, Probe Gold has been consolidating its land position in the prospective Val d’Or East area in the province of Quebec with a district-scale land package of 685 km2 that represents one of the largest landholdings in the Val d’Or mining camp.
The Novador project represents one property block of 175 km2 that hosts four past-producing mines (Beliveau mine, Bussiere mine, Monique mine and Beaufor mine) and contains 80% of the company’s gold resources in Val d’Or East.
Probe owns 100% of its flagship asset, the multimillion-ounce Novador gold project, as well as an early-stage Detour Gold Quebec project. Probe controls a large land package of approximately 1,685 km2 of exploration ground within some of the most prolific gold belts in Quebec. The company’s recent Novador updated preliminary economic assessment outlines a robust mining plan with an average annual gold production of 255,000 ounces over a 12.6-year mine life.
Val d’Or properties include gold resources totalling 6,728,600 ounces in the measured and indicated category and 3,277,100 ounces in the inferred category along all trends and deposits.