Golden Butterfly Gold Mine (Shearer's; Grand Slam; Karri), Tampa, Kookynie Goldfield, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Golden Butterfly Gold Mine (Shearer's; Grand Slam; Karri)	Mine
Tampa	- not defined -
Kookynie Goldfield	Ore Field
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The deposit was discovered by Shearer and party around 1908. The Kalgoorlie based Oroya Brown Hill company took out a six month option over the mine for 3000 pounds in 1908, but declined to purchase it after sampling.

Adelaide based Golden Butterfly Company purchased the lease in 1912, and changed the mines name to its own. During their period a shaft was sunk to 328 feet with drives (mainly to the north) at five levels. A ten head battery was removed from Mount Morgans near Laverton, and re-erected at the Golden Butterfly. Between 1912 to 1914 the company produced 31 379 tonnes of ore for 7808 ounces of gold.

It will be seen by these figures the lode is very low grade, the gold very fine, with no specimen grade material. A 1916 investigation by former government geologist J.T. Jutson stated ore shoots were in a lode, in turn in a well defined channel. The shoots were lenticular in character, with oxidised ore down to 300 feet. The lode was 6 to 8 feet wide, but at places could be 12 feet.

In 1915, the nearby Grand Slam (which became part of the later open pit development), by Harvey and party crushed several parcels through the Butterfly battery. The battery was removed in 1920.

The Western Areas Company re-pegged the lease in 1947, after it had been abandoned by J. Cranston as the Karri Gold Mine. They un-watered the shafts and sampled the mine from the lower levels, but determined it to be unprofitable.

Several open pits were developed across 1996 to 1997, with the ore carted to the nearby Orient Well processing plant to the east. The Admiral, King and Danluce pits produced 33 000 ounces of gold. Late 2002 to early 2003, the Butterfly pit produced a further 11 000 ounces.

The geology in the area is poorly understood. Gold is associated with re-activated east-west trending shears, along contacts often offset by north-west faults. Gold is hosted in the 30 degree east dipping Butterfly Shear, where it cuts the Admiral Shear, and magnetite rich dolerite sills.

The pits are approximately 15 kilometres north of Kookynie, and two kilometres west of the Orient Well mine. Six pits were at the location (a couple may have been filled in with tailings), consisting of the Admiral (furthest west), then Clark and Butterfly to the east, King and Danluce borders to the south, and Red Lake bordering again to the south.

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