Year end letter from Dave Palmer Dear Shareholders,
As 2018 comes to a close we wanted to look back on the company’s continued progress during the year and our outlook for 2019. During 2018, Probe was one of the most active gold exploration companies in North America drilling over 100,000 metres on its flagship project - Val-d’Or East, Quebec. In addition to consolidating a district land package in Val-d’Or from 2016 to 2018, we doubled our gold resource and generated new discoveries across the properties. 2018 was a difficult year for mining stocks, with headwinds of market volatility, interest rates, gold price fluctuation and recent weak markets. I firmly believe that 2019 will be a pivotal year for the company and our Shareholders as we continue to grow the gold resource and move our project forward.
Probe Metals is one of the largest landholders in the historic Val-d’Or mining camp in Quebec. In addition to being a politically stable and mining-friendly jurisdiction, it is also one of the lowest-cost areas to work in North America. We were able to consolidate a large land holding in the eastern half of the camp, which we saw as having greater exploration upside and discovery potential. While starting with a 700,000-ounce gold resource that we doubled to 1.4Mozs in our first year of work, we expect to see continued growth from our 2018 program with an updated resource expected in Q1-2019. In addition to strong resource growth, we have also shown proof of concept in our exploration model with numerous gold discoveries to the east and west of our existing resources.
From the work completed to date, our confidence is growing in the project and we see a clear path forward to development. In addition to a stand-alone scenario, Val-d’Or also hosts a number of under-fed mills in the area which provides the alternative scenario of being acquired by an already-established Val-d’Or producer. With a strong treasury going into 2019 our primary goal is to continue advancing in order to position ourselves as a leading project in any gold price environment. We are well on our way to realizing this with the following achievements and plans:
2018 Highlights:
- Completed over 108,000 meters of drilling, well above our goal of 85,000 meters.
- Results, to date, indicate an extensive gold mineralized system.
- Numerous new discoveries confirming district scale potential.
- Numerous regional targets identified from exploration program.
- Ending the year with $30 million in treasury.
2019 Outlook:
- Continue with our aggressive exploration program, including a large winter drilling program to expand current gold resource and test new discoveries.
- Updated Resource Estimate expected in Q1-2019.
- Advance engineering studies and continue to de-risk the project
Please find attached a more detailed summary of our progress in 2018 and what to look forward to in 2019.
On behalf of the management and the board of directors, I appreciate and look forward to your continued support as we move into the next stages of creating value for shareholders, stakeholders and the communities within which we operate. I want to thank you again for your ongoing trust and confidence in the team. All the best during the holidays and our wishes to you and your families for a safe and prosperous 2019.
Best regards,
David Palmer
President & CEO Probe Metals Inc