Probe Metals advances Val-d’Or East project development studies

Probe Metals Inc. has announced positive results of the geotechnical site characterization and the pit slope design for its Val-d’Or East Project. The work included characterizing joint-scale structural trends, and rock mass quality, as well as bench design, and high wall stability assessments. The main objective of the program was to define catch bench capacities, and inter-ramp angles, to support ongoing mine design and economic evaluations. The positive results have identified opportunities to further increase slope angles for a number of the planned pits of the Val-d’Or East project.

David Palmer, President and CEO of Probe, states: “As we progress towards the PEA we continue to improve upon the fundamental building blocks of a development project. These current geotechnical studies are an integral part of mine design and the ability to increase pit slopes should allow the reduction of the waste to ore ratios, typically referred to as the “strip ratio”, which will lower costs and increase potential profitability. The Val-d’Or East project has continued to show promising results in several development-related items, including geochemical characterization studies, metallurgical studies and this geotechnical work. All of these aspects will help to build a more robust PEA and maximize value in the project.”

Geotechnical Update – Objectives and Details

A geotechnical update of the design criteria was completed to determine the relevant design constraints to be applied to the PEA resource estimate for the deposits at Val d’Or East. This involved a review of the geotechnical drillhole database, an update to the geomechanical site characterization, and open pit stability analysis. The update and analysis were conducted by RockEng Inc. and Probe.

Methodology

Probe acquired geotechnical data from drill holes spatially relevant to each deposit of the Pascalis, Courvan and Monique Gold Trends. Statistical analyses of the available geotechnical data was used to update the geomechanical site characterization, which included:

• Small-scale structural trends (jointing)
• Rock mass classification
• Field estimation of intact rock strength
• Empirical estimation of rock mass strength

The updated geomechanical site characterization, for each of the deposits of the Val d’Or East project, was used to evaluate bench design, (bench face angles, bench height and catch bench requirements,) and inter-ramp slope angle (IRA) constraints, necessary to ensure wall stability for open pit mining of each deposit. See figure 1 below for a visual representation of the inter-ramp slope angle (IRA) that will be presented in the results section, including orientation.

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