It may be ‘highly speculative’’ but the latest mining play from Nick Jorss has won investor backing

Punters have embraced a Brisbane-based company, which just raised $7m, and it has a lot to do with one bloke and his legendary track record.

Nick Jorss chairs ambitious start-up Ballymore Resources. Picture: Annette Dew

Investors have been warned.

The latest Queensland resources firm to start trading on the ASX is an early-stage mineral explorer and “any investment made in the company should be considered highly speculative’’.

Those are the cautionary words of seasoned industry player Nick Jorss, who chairs ambitious start-up Ballymore Resources, which only kicked off in 2019.

But punters have embraced the Brisbane-based company, which just raised $7m to fund an aggressive drilling effort at multiple sites across the state in the hunt for gold, copper, silver, lead and zinc.

Nick Jorss

Shares issued at 20 cents immediately spiked up on the first day of trade last week, doubling in price before settling back down to above 30 cents. It closed Tuesday at 31.5 cents.

No doubt giving investors a heightened sense of confidence to pile in is the impressive track record that Jorss brings to the table.

After all, this is the bloke who co-founded Stanmore coal and served as the boss of the company for eight year through 2016. It was taken over last year by Singaporean interests in a $256m deal.

During his time at Stanmore, Jorss oversaw the now-legendary deal to pay just $1 for the then-mothballed Isaac Plains coal mine in the Bowen Basin and then turned it into a billion-dollar asset employing hundreds of workers.

With Ballymore, Jorss and his two co-directors, Andrew Gilbert and David A-izzeddin, seem to have taken a similar approach, identifying overlooked or inactive sites with fresh potential to extract more base metals.

More than $5m from the float will be committed to an aggressive round of drilling over the next 18 months.

Their Dittmer Project, for instance, was first discovered in 1934 and later produced nearly 55,000 ounces of gold, as well as copper and silver. Drilling has already started here and the first results are expected later this month.

Similarly, their Ruddygore Project contains plenty of “targets’’ that were mined in the early 1900s but since then have not been subjected to substantial modern exploration.

A further site, known as the Ravenswood Project near Charters Towers, is considered drill-ready for gold deposits.

Even the Queensland Government has got a piece of the action, having tipped in a $100,000 grant as part of its “collaborative exploration initiative’’.

That money will help carry out testing on a spot known as the Matthews Pinnacle Porphyry Copper-Gold target.

Meanwhile, Jorss also serves as chairman of listed Bowen Coking Coal, which last month announced a “transformational’’ $20m deal to acquire the majority stake in two mines from New Hope.

DINOSAUR ROCK

They’re the dinosaurs cranking out rock classics to rustle up a few dollars to help kids with autism.

The Jurassic Jam returns to the Triffid this Saturday, with a bunch of Brisbane corporate and academic types in three different bands hoping to raise $50,000 for the AEIOU Foundation.

Among those turning it up to 11 will be Clayton Utz legal eagle Mark Waller, fund manager Rob Mactaggart and Morgan’s bigshots John Clifford and Joe Gallagher.

More than 350 tickets (costing just $50 a piece) have already been sold but there’s still about 80 remaining for the event, which will also feature a raffle and live auctions for some pretty nifty vacation packages.