David Palmer's Probe Mines Ltd. (PRB) rose 12 cents to $3.32 on 768,000 shares, after some kind words from newsletter writer John Kaiser. He has been one of the company's more-faithful supporters, and this week he told The Gold Report that Probe is one of the companies giving investors hope in the middle of this "junior resource swamp." The stock hit an all-time high of $3.95 in March, 2014, but then stalled, partially because a lumber company was holding onto to a small wedge of land in the middle of the company's Borden Lake gold project. The parties had been negotiating for a couple of years, and in December they finally agreed upon a price: $25-million and six million shares. It was steep considering Probe had paid $55,000 and 300,000 shares for bulk of the property in 2010, but it will be worth it if the company can increase its high-grade gold resource. Probe has four million ounces of high-grade gold (economic now), and another four million ounces of low-grade gold (economic at $1,300). Probe has begun infill drilling, and plans to increase the program later this month when the lake freezes over.

President Palmer, a career geologist, has been selected to receive the Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian Mineral Discovery at the PDAC conference in Toronto this March. He joined Probe in 2003, and spent his first seven years with the company looking for chromite in Northern Ontario's Ring of Fire. When gold started to become more interesting, he acquired Borden Lake as a side story. It was April, 2010 and the stock was trading at 35 cents. Better-than-expected assays quickly propelled the stock up to $2 by the end of that year and Mr. Palmer made Borden the main story, pushing chromite aside. He owns 1.12 million shares, worth $3.7-million. The company's largest shareholder is Agnico Eagle with 7.32 million. It bought 7.5 million shares in May, 2013, at $2, and sold 179,000 last summer for a profit of $143,000.