Beta Hunt Mine, St. Ives gold camp, Kambalda, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Beta Hunt Mine	Mine
St. Ives gold camp	- not defined -
Kambalda	Town
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Historic gold mining area at the base of Red Hill, East Kambalda, on the shores of Lake Lefroy. Discovered in February 1897, resulting in an alluvial rush with estimates of 300 to 800 men attempting to locate gold in the area. By late 1897, leases had been pegged, and prospecting syndicates were sinking shafts on the numerous reefs. Considering the activity, little evidence exists today, and the area is further heavily disturbed by mining support infrastructure for nearby gold and nickel mines.

One source provides a description of the early workings, as the visitor travelled across the Lake Lefroy salt-pan towards the workings:
'The digging camps are visible some distance off, dotted amongst the timber on the edge of the lake, the hills from which rise to a good height at the back, and it is in a steep gully coming down from the hills that the best gold was got. There are a good many stores and tents, and apparently 200 or 300 people. The creek channel from which the gold was won is dry and rocky, with about 2 or 3 feet of soil and stones lying in it from which the gold was won.... crossing this gully is a north and south direction, partly parallel with the shore of the lake, is a porphyry dyke forming a rugged ridge, and in it and on the outside of some of the rocks, gold is plainly visible, and this extends to an island some distance from the shore'.

The area initially contained several leases under the Red Hill heading. Some of these were Boomer, Golden Butterfly, Cameron's Shoot, Evening Star, Larkin's Christmas Box, amongst others.

By 1899, the leases at 67 acres had been consolidated under the Red Hill (WA) Gold Syndicate. They expended an extraordinary 65 000 pounds on a 10 head Frasers and Chalmers battery, boilers, ore feeders, winding engine, condensers, rock breaker, concentrators, Berdan pans, cyanide plant, compound air compressor, pumps, pipes, condensing plant, aerial ropeway, tramway, assay plant, electric light, rock drills, stores, tools etc.

Development had occurred on the St Mildred lode with dis-appointing results, then switched to the Queensland lode, at which point shareholders refused to provide more funds. The company was purchased by the Red Hill (Westralia) Gold Mines in 1902. The land was leased from the Hampton Plains Estate which owned the entire area. Employing 200 men, it continued development for a short time before the area fell silent.

An Adelaide company called the Alluvial Gold Deposits NL, had plans in 1927 to dredge the lake near the old Butterfly leases, however the idea never materialised. Had it done so they would have found much gold, that in recent times has resulted in several pits across the lake bed.

The present modern mining was conducted by RNC from 2015 on lease from Goldfields Ltd. The mine was for sale in 2018. The location produces both nickel and gold. The nickel is found in talc-carbonates and serpentine in altered ultramafic rocks featuring pyrrhotite-pentlandite-pyrite-chalcopyrite. Gold is found in the Lunon Basalt as a Footwall to the nickel bearing ultramafics. The Footwall shows intense albite, carbonate, and chlorite alteration, surrounded by a biotite-pyrite alteration halo.

In 2017 the mine produced 35 307 ounces of Au and 800 tonnes of Ni. The modern mine is called Beta Hunt. The Hunt Shoot further north has historically produced 30 000 tonnes of Ni.

A bonanza style gold vein was found in the mine in September 2018 (the "Fathers Day" vein). Miners brought more than $15 million worth of gold specimens to the surface in just four days. The vein was intersected about 500 metres below the surface in an area just three metres wide and three metres high. The largest specimen weighs in at 90 kilograms and took three men to lift it onto the back of a ute. The quartz rock is covered in an estimated 2300 ounces of gold, worth about $3.8 million at today’s gold price. Another 60-kilogram specimen is estimated to contain 1600 ounces, or about $2.6 million in gold. The rich cluster of high-grade gold has so far produced more than 9000 ounces. The company auctioned off much of the gold to collectors and mineral dealers.

In June 2019 a similar lode was encountered along the main A Zone shear on the 16 Level toward a point about 25m below and 15m south of the Father's Day Vein on the 15 Level. These latest coarse gold-in-quartz veins have so far yielded an estimated 3000 ounces of gold.

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Hunt_Mine
Wikidata ID:	Q56557473

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References