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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

New York spot gold closed down $3.10 to $1,277.20 Monday, a half day of trading for the Martin Luther King holiday. American stock markets remained closed. Here in Canada, the TSX Venture Exchange added 5.85 points to 673.16 and the TSX Gold Index added a fraction to 181.70.

Major Canadian gold miners ended some up, others down on light trading volume. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) added 12 cents to $14.21, Kinross Gold Corp. (K) rose two cents to $4.31, Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI) remained unchanged at $5.32 and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM) lost 24 cents to $38.94.

Goldcorp Inc. (G) rose 18 cents to $28.67, after making a $526-million all-share takeover bid for David Palmer's Probe Mines Ltd. (PRB). The news sent Probe shooting up $1.68 to $5.04, an all-time high, on 5.22 million shares. Goldcorp is after Probe's Borden Lake gold project in Ontario, where there are four million ounces of high-grade gold (economic now) and four million ounces of low-grade gold (economic at $1,300 gold). Goldcorp plans to truck the ore from Borden Lake to its Porcupine mill, 160 kilometres away for processing. It has no plans for any other Probe property, so it will spin them plus $15-million in cash out to a new company. Probe's Mr. Palmer will take over the new company, along with Probe chairman Jamie Sokalsky. Mr. Sokalsky has been with Probe since Sept. 16 of last year, the day after he stepped down as chief executive of Barrick. So far, he has helped Mr. Palmer consolidate the company's Borden Lake land claims. For the past two years, Mr. Palmer had been trying to acquire one remaining wedge of land from a stubborn lumber company. The parties finally agreed to a price last month, $25-million in cash and six million shares. The shares of the lumber company, Scierie Landrienne Inc., are now worth $30-million, up from $18-million last month.

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