Ruddygore Project
The Ruddygore Project is located adjacent to the town of Chillagoe in North Queensland and approximately 150 km west of Cairns. It covers an area of 556 km2. Historically, Chillagoe was a significant mining and smelting centre that was most active from 1888 to 1927, prior to further substantial production of gold, copper and silver from the Red Dome mine from 1986 to 1997.
A recent soil sampling campaign was completed targeting a significant magnetic anomaly. The program has extended the Ruddygore system by another 2 km, to create a 5 km long target zone.
Previous work by Ballymore recognised a major alteration zone associated with a large, copper-lead-zinc-silver anomaly over approximately 2.8 km x 1.9 km. Initial drilling by Ballymore in 2022 confirmed the historic mine area hosts significant shallow copper mineralisation including 86m @ 0.56% CuEq (BRURD002: 4 – 90m). This recent work has confirmed the extension of copper and zinc mineralisation into our recently granted EPM 27840, and further enhances the size potential of this significant copper mineralised system.
Tenements
The Ruddygore Project is located adjacent to the regional centre of Chillagoe in north Queensland and consists of four granted EPMs with an area of 558 km2. The exploration permits include Ruddygore EPM 14015, Metal Hills EPM 15047, EPM 15053 and Scardons EPM 27840.
Previous Mining
The Ruddygore Mine was mined from 1896 to 1909 by open cut and shaft access to underground. The mine yielded 1,450 tons of copper from 32,750 tons of handpicked ore at an average grade of 3.9% Cu and 56 g/t Ag.
The Maniopota mine is a skarn deposit mined for lead, zinc, and silver. No production records have been found for this site, but it hosts a series of small pits over 1 km strike length.
The Torpy’s Crooked Creek mine operated from 1904 –1914 when production included 6,000 tons of ore yielding 84,000 oz silver and 920 tons of lead at average grades of 15.3% Pb and 435 g/t Ag.
Exploration Program
The Ruddygore exploration program will explore the historic mining areas (e.g. Ruddygore, Torpy’s Crooked Creek, Maniopota) in parallel with new exploration to advance many prospective target areas that are less advanced.
Ballymore has secured a CEI grant for $300,000 to undertake a semi regional heli-borne EM survey over a large portion of the highly prospective Chillagoe Formation in far north Queensland. The survey will cover the Maniopota prospect within Ballymore’s Ruddygore Project and will be the first EM geophysical assessment of the area in over 50 years.
