Dittmer Project
The Dittmer Project contains the historic, high-grade Dittmer mine which was discovered in 1934 and produced over 54,000 Oz of gold through to 1951. Ballymore has reopened old underground workings at the Dittmer mine and is assessing the potential for near term restart.
Tenements
The Dittmer Project is located 20km west of Proserpine in Central Queensland and comprises two granted MLs, one ML application and three granted EPMs covering an area of 513 km2. The Dittmer Project is located 20 – 50 km west and southwest of the regional centre of Proserpine in central Queensland.
Regional potential summary
The historic Dittmer Mine forms one of several old high-grade workings along a 2km north-northeast trending corridor which is also crosscut by a series of structures with associated historical workings. Field work, including mapping, rock chip, soil and stream sediment sampling, was completed by Ballymore in 2023 to assess Dittmer’s size potential.
Other nearby workings are primarily shallow, open pit mines that operated between the 1890’s and 1930’s and mined at average grades of up to 567 g/t (e.g. Loch Neigh Mine) with copper grades not reported. Despite the presence of extensive workings in the area, this corridor has undergone little or no modern exploration.
Exploration Program
2023 was a transformational year for Ballymore with ongoing success at Dittmer, including exceptional drilling results, further extending the known mineralisation associated with the newly recognised hangingwall lode. Preliminary metallurgical testwork has confirmed that the ore is amenable to processing via both cyanide leach and flotation processes. Field work has demonstrated that Dittmer forms part of a major mineralised system and only a small portion of it has been drilled to date. In December 2023, the Company considerably strengthened its balance sheet with an $11.1 million funding package, including a placement, Entitlement Offer as well as securing US$5m project funding for Dittmer from Taurus Mining Royalty Fund L.P. (finalised 20 March 2024).
The Stage 4 drill program targeted interpreted high-grade shoots in the Duffer Lode. This program comprised 14 drill holes (DTDD029 – 042B) for a total of 2,933.1m. Drilling targeted an area of 250m x 200m adjacent to the historic Dittmer mine and demonstrated that this area hosts extensive vein-hosted, bonanza gold mineralisation with associated copper and silver mineralisation. All holes successfully intersected the modelled Duffer Lode and assay results continue to support the presence of high-grade shoots within the lode structure. Drill hole DTDD041 has reported another significant drill intersection of 15.0m @ 3.00 g/t Au from 151m, including 3.9m @ 8.93 g/t Au from 152m, including 1.9m @ 15.58 g/t Au from 154m.
Results have also been received for drill hole DTDD042B, which is the deepest hole completed at Dittmer to date. This hole was completed 100m beneath and 100m south of all previous drilling and has intersected a broad shear zone, hosting quartz-carbonate-sulphide veins. Results for this hole have been received and confirm the fault-extension of the Duffer Lode is getting broader at depth, reporting a series of mineralised zones between 288m and 305m including of 7.0m @ 1.46 g/t Au from 298m, including 2.8m @ 3.39 g/t Au from 300m, including 0.4m @ 20.58 g/t Au from 301.3m. There appears to be a clear widening of the structure and further drilling is warranted.
Ballymore has received a Queensland Government CEI grant for $300,000 to undertake an 8,051 line-kilometre, low level heli-borne gradient magnetic and radiometric survey covering our entire Dittmer Project area as well as the neighbouring Julivon Creek EPM, held by our project partner for this survey, BGM Investments Pty Ltd (BGM). The Dittmer Project hosts a range of vein-hosted, breccia-hosted, skarn-hosted and porphyry-style deposits dominated with copper, gold, silver and other base and critical minerals. The survey area covers numerous historic mines and prospects including porphyry-related copper deposits (e.g. Julivon Creek/Copperhead, Andromache) and vein- and stockwork-hosted gold-copper epithermal and mesothermal deposits (e.g. Dittmer, Cedar Ridge).
