Jorss, who started helped bring the Isaac Plains coal mine back to life with Stanmore Resources is now chairman of Ballymore which picked up the historic Dittmer gold mine, near Proserpine.

Dittmer had one been one of Australia’s highest grade gold producers.

However, the mine was abandoned in 1980s because gold grades fell, but Jorss said Ballymore may have discovered a “faulted extension” to the high grade Duffer Lode. The fault displaced the lode by 30 metres from the previously mined lode.

Ballymore said the final assay results demonstrated extensions to the high-grade historic workings and point to a broadening out of the mineralised zone into potentially viable high grade zones that may be suitable for extract by modern underground methods.

“The Dittmer (or Kelsey Creek) mine was one of the highest grade gold mines in Australia in its day and included significant copper and silver credits,” Jorss said.

“These results are very encouraging for Ballymore and have better defined the geology, structural controls and grade extensions.

“The discovery of a potential faulted extension to the high grade Duffer Lode helps explain why historic mining ceased in the absence of any drilling prior to Ballymore’s recent campaigns.”

He said when it last operated the gold price was much lower than it is today, but drilling and sampling “have confirmed significant gold mineralistation remains within the historic mine area and extends beyond the limits of the previous mining”.

“This high grade lode occurs at shallow depths and remains largely untested by drilling,” he said.

Drilling identified previously unknown extensions to the Dittmer mine including 9.1 metres at 3.01 grams per tonne of gold, which included 2 metres at 11.64 g/t. Another intersectons was 12 metres at 2.44 g/t which included 4.35 metres at 4.89 g/t.

The company said the drilling showed significant extensions potentially existed near the surface