I'm perhaps not a long timer but first came across the company a bit over 12 months ago, but yeah these threads have been been very quiet in this time.
So basically, the Dittmer mine was a historical mine that produced high grade gold, ceasing around 75 years ago when the mineralised lode oddly suddenly stopped (rather than a reduction in grade/size etc).
The following 2 sentences and beyond might not be 100% correct in parts, happy to be corrected if so.
Around 5 or so years ago, management came across the story/data while looking at opportunities privately and acquired the mining lease and applied for exploration leases to surround this (not sure if they already existed or were being proactive), with a thinking that it was odd the lode stopped, which was worth investigating on its own and that there could be more mineralisation in the area so was as good a chance as any to pursue.
In Sep 2021 BMR becomes a listed company with a few projects and Dittmer not a stand out 100% focus like it pretty much is now. But with stage 1 drilling hitting mineralisation, then stage 2 drilling also, it becomes evident that the lode has been displaced through a shear/fault, and continues about 30m beside the existing workings so Dittmer quickly became the focus for the company.
All drills so far (stage 3/4/5, with the remaining stage 5 drilling results expected soon) have confirmed the lode continuation, it appears to have been confirmed over a length of depth of around 200m (around 150m vertically).
What I like about this story, is it isn't simply about reopening a mine that struggled in a lower price environment (and might have issues beyond this as they tend to...), this is effectively a new discovery in an existing underground mine. It sits on an existing ML which is important for the near term with the surrounding exploration lease hopefully soon to be converted into a ML which would be massive for any extensions/new mineralisation found. Combine this with nearby existing processing options and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a couple of years of cashflow above the current market cap should things go well. This would then be able to fund significant additional exploration (the surrounding area has basically no recorded exploration) and management are finding indications from surface that there could be more mineralised systems surrounding, which given the amount of mines in the general area (eg QLD) has to be worth the effort to explore.
Ann - 20/06/2022 looking South and 13/06/2025 looking North
The claims of 151g/t haven't exactly been replicated in the results consistently over any length of say 1m+, but given the timing of the prior mining and technology at the time my assumption would be that they only bothered processing the higher grade ore which would've had visual gold in it (or ore they were sure had gold in it, so they might have missed plenty of still good grade ore that would have dropped the average grade but still been profitable, especially at today's prices). Even if the high grade gold mineralisation is say 20-100cm in width, the drill results have shown there are generally more than traces a metre or 2 either side and for mining as long as the mineralisation is predictable from drilling data (plus they can visually see it), it should be easy to follow and I would assume also easy to extract and process it. I think they would be looking to take out a 3-5m wide section to encompass this mineralised zone and have it all processed rather than try get only the high grade vein. This high grade part is at such a high grade that in a current high price environment is clearly worth pursuing and can be done in the near term, especially as I'd expect capex to be low as there is no need for processing plant and they already have access underground to within ~30m of the lode. If historically they only processed/targeted the clearly high grade material, I would assume that there could be a significant amount of unprocessed ore with more than juicy enough grades that would be simple to get processed (this is just my theory). I think this is shaping up to be a mini Fosterville (key word on 'mini' in terms of both grade and size).
Ann - 13/06/2025
I have been struggling to visualise the extent/volume of the mineralisation, but from a month ago we can see that the company has listed the lode as being known over 300m x 200m, which by a say 3-5m wide mining plan could be used as a very rough calc for volume. combine in an average grade of say 3-7 g/t and at these juicy grades and current prices compared to current market cap leaves plenty of room to move. Obviously we don't have the cost to extract, truck and process but given what other companies are doing, sure seems like there is plenty of meat on this bone. If the historic mine produced 55,000 oz over a 200m x 150m zone, then with the displaced lode zone covering twice the area, assuming the same grade that gets to 110,000 oz at a high grade, given modern processing etc, maybe this could be bumped a surprising amount by adding in gold at still great grades that would be mined anyway. Add in some potential for existing workings to be processed also, maybe 200k high grade oz isn't out of the question based on current results, but would admit this is on the optimistic side currently with a few assumptions that I think are reasonable enough but may not play out.
Hopefully the results of stage 5 drilling will be sufficient to provide a resource so the market can see some actual numbers, from which they could then do a mining study and seriously looking to nearby processing options which I'm confident currently exist. Once the market can see numbers and can piece it together I feel this will garner interest rapidly. A mineralised zone of say a couple of hundred meters squared by 3-5m at an average grade of 3-7g/t would print money and a local processor would be licking there lips to get a cut of it. (These are my assumptions on limited data and I am by no means an expert).
This to me seems like such an obvious story when you dig a little deeper, the Taurus royalty fund also thought so to when in late 2023 at a time gold explorers were struggling to raise capital. BMR were able to raise US$5m through a future royalty (so basically Taurus were confident back then to risk ~AU$7.5m that this project would produce enough at some point in the near future to repay that and more. Out of all the capital raises done by gold explorers in 2023, this would have to be in the top few. They managed to raise this much under a royalty at a time companies were destroying their registers raising money through standard raises in a tough environment.
Above is the main play IMO, but recently the company has been out on foot in the surrounding area and have been picking up samples from stream sediment showing gold (which can only have come from the hills surrounding) and general rock samples plus seeing signs that potential mineralisation could be showing signs elsewhere at surface. There is also a deep hole currently being drilled below the mine into a porphyry target that would make sense to be feeding this lode and perhaps others undiscovered. If either of these plays were to show significant results then maybe the rediscovered lode will become a side story, but that is admittedly getting way ahead of myself.
(20min delay)