Shares in Ballymore jumped 15 per cent on new of “extremely high grades” of gold from soil sampling in area that includes the historic workings at Dittmer.

Prospecting to the south of the mine has reported grades of 103 grams per tonne of gold as well as silver and copper, according to managing director David A-Izzeddin.

The company has also confirmed a 2km-long anomaly that extends out from the old Dittmer mine. Only about 250 metres of this has been drilled and all of those holders had hit gold.

“Dittmer, our flagship project, continues to yield exciting results, returning new soil results which demonstrate its potential to host a major mineralised system similar in style to Queensland’s largest gold mine Ravenswood,” A-Izzeddin said.

“Mineralisation recognised has only been drill-tested at the Dittmer mine workings over a strike length of 250 metres to date and this soil program indicates that this forms part of a far larger load structure that extends for at least 2km.”

Field work is also being done to test the potential for the Dittmer mine to form a part of a much larger regional system.

Historically, mines in the area near Dittmer operated between the 1890s and 1930s and had grades of 567 grams per tonne, but there has been little modern exploration.

“Ballymore considers that this area represents the top of a larger system, similar in style to the Ravenswood mining district which has produced 4.8 million ounces of gold.

The company is now looking at re-opening the Dittmer mine which produced 54,000 ounces of gold between 1935 and 1951 with gold grades up to 151 g/t.