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Cue, Cue Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Cue	- not defined -
Cue Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

At the turn of the century Cue was the centre of the Murchison Goldfields. The rich reef deposits were discovered in the early 1890s.

"The miners were hopelessly romantic about their prospects and, although Cue sits in the middle of a desert area, they gave their mines names like Light of Asia, Golden Stream, Lady Mary, Golden Crows Nest, and Cue Victory. The mines continued to operate from 1892 until 1933 when the price of gold finally forced the Light of Asia to close."
"The road from Mount Magnet to Cue is littered with small gold mines. A rough hand painted sign at the side of the road and a pile of tailings in the distance indicates that another small mining operation is trying its luck with the area's seemingly inexhaustible supplies of reef gold."

The general geology of the Cue area is as follows from the base:
1. Moyagee Formation of metamorphosed mafic and ultramafic with intrusives, prominent banded iron formation interbeds, the latter the main gold host.
2. Cuddingwarra Formation of metasediments and felsic volcanics.
3. Ryansville Formation of metamorphosed mafics, some ultramafic, and no banded iron formation.

The area is intruded by granite during and after folding. It is also intruded by intermediate gabbro, dolerite, serpentinite sills, and quartz porphyry dykes.

Structures trend north-east, with some north-west trending with cross folding. Faulting is localised only, but large scale lineaments trend north-east.

Gold is found in all units of the folded greenstone. Major deposits at Cue are associated with an anticlinorium nose, and west limb. Those on the limb are lower grade and smaller. The highest grades of gold is found in banded iron formation, and granitic gneiss associated with mafic remnants, and folded metadolerites, west of the north plunging nose. Gold is controlled by shears. Gold is also found in contact zones of folded metagabbro, and with a sill at Day Dawn to the south.

At Cue, there is abundant granodiorite intrusives, mafic schists, both as irregular masses and cross cutting dykes.

Gold is found principally in lenticular quartz reefs occupying fissures, either parallel to the granite, and amphibolite contact.

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