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 successfully identified an extension to the historic high-grade orebody and is engaged in studies with the aim of re-opening the Dittmer Mine, which operated during the 1930 – 50’s at a reported gold head grade of 151 g/t Au.
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.
Stage 5 underground drilling completed
Ballymore completed the Stage 5 underground drilling at Dittmer with each hole intersecting the targeted fault extension of the Duffer Lode, reporting quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite veining. Results are continuing to be received, and the company recently reported the highest-grade result to date in drill hole DTDD056, which delivered an intersection of 6.60m @ 13.67g/t Au from 139.4m including 0.4m @ 221.3 g/t Au from 143.5m. All drill holes in the program have been logged with selected intervals of drill core cut and submitted to the laboratory with further results pending.
The program focused on infilling and extending the mineralisation at Dittmer, with the additional aims of achieving sufficient drill coverage to estimate an initial Mineral Resource for the project as well as completing preliminary mining scoping studies. This area had never been drill-tested prior to Ballymore commencing exploration. Stage 5 drilling comprised fourteen holes (DTDD049 – 062) for a total of 3,152.6m and has significantly contributed to our understanding of the Dittmer lode system. Drilling has continued to demonstrate exceptional grade and continuity of the newly recognised lode structure.
Significant assay results have already been received for DTDD049 – 057 of the Stage 5 program. Significant results reported for the Stage 5 program to date include:
DTDD0534
- 2.85m @ 10.55 g/t Au (DTDD053: 133.95 – 136.8m) including
- 0.3m @ 99.8 g/t Au (DTDD053: 136.5 – 136.8m)
DTDD0544
- 3.65m @ 11.92 g/t Au (DTDD054: 98.25 – 101.9m) including
- 1.75m @ 24.65 g/t Au (DTDD054: 98.25 – 100m) including
- 0.8m @ 48.16 g/t Au (DTDD054: 99.2 – 100m).
DTDD0565
- 6.60m @ 13.67g/t Au, 4.4g/t Ag, & 0.18% Cu, including
- 2.50m @ 35.63g/t Au, 11.3g/t Ag, & 0.44% Cu, including
- 0.40m @ 221.31g/t Au, 70.2g/t Ag, & 2.71% Cu.
DTDD0575
- 5.90m @ 4.63g/t Au, 2.3g/t Ag, & 0.17% Cu, including
- 2.90m @ 8.07g/t Au, 3.8g/t Ag, & 0.27% Cu
Drilling continues to confirm the high tenor of gold mineralisation in the Duffer Lode fault-extension and appears to be supporting Ballymore’s interpretation that higher grade shoots within the lode plunge moderately towards the south.
Dittmer Deep copper-gold porphyry hole commenced.
Ballymore commenced drilling of a Queensland Government Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) funded deep drill hole to test a major magnetic anomaly beneath the historic high-grade Dittmer mine that is interpreted to represent an underlying porphyry copper deposit. The target is a large pipelike magnetic body that was identified by a high-resolution heli-borne magnetic and radiometric survey flown over the entire Dittmer project area in 2024. Ballymore received CEI funding to fly this survey and it not only identified this drill target but also highlighted various other significant magnetic anomalies requiring follow-up within the Dittmer project area.
The drill target is interpreted to be a porphyry intrusion, analogous with significant copper-gold porphyry deposits in Eastern Australia including Northparkes (3.3Moz gold / 2.9Mt copper) and Ridgeway (1.9Moz gold / 0.31Mt copper).
Field work doubles strike length of Dittmer gold corridor.
Subsequent to the end of the quarter, Ballymore announced that field work undertaken during the quarter, south of the historic Dittmer gold mine, had recognised significant extensions to the mineralised corridor, potentially doubling its strike length to 4km. Only 300m of the Dittmer fault corridor has been systematically drilled by Ballymore to date.
Visible gold was observed in eleven stream sediment samples with assays up to 39g/t Au (2,279ppb repeat). Extensive gold anomalism now extends for 4km with the strongest stream anomalies defined south of Dittmer in poorly explored areas.
Prospecting located gossanous veining south of the Dittmer mine with significant vein material recognised in creeks draining the Lady Denise and Jim’s area. Rock chips were reported up to 7.43 g/t Au. Anomalous drainages correspond with a large magnetic low, interpreted to be an alteration zone associated with the Dittmer mineralised corridor.
Preparations are now underway to ground-check these highly anomalous zones of mineralisation.
