Weld Range, Madoonga Station, Cue Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Weld Range	Mountain Range
Madoonga Station	- not defined -
Cue Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Potential iron ore mine, but mining has not gained approval. It has been torpedoed by various issues raised if mining goes ahead, including distance to port, destruction of rare flora hosted by the banded iron formations, destruction of aboriginal heritage sites, and native title disputes.

The Weld Range is 3-5 kilometres wide by 40 kilometres long.

A general study of the banded iron formations of Weld Range in 1980 states the range is composed of metabasites and minor metasediments with 5-10% banded iron formations. There are two units of the latter being Fe rich units of banded iron formations with mesobands, and Fe shale as laminated 2-30cm thick bands.

In the mesobands the order of abundance of species is minnesotaite, siderite, quartz, magnetite, greenalite, stilpnomelane, pyrite, chamosite with trace pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, and apatite but all widely distributed. Rockbridgeite was rare. The assemblage is variable between the bands.

In the Fe rich shale the order of abundance was chamosite, stilpnomelane, siderite, greenalite, pyrite, magnetite, minnesotaite, quartz with minor ilmenite, chalcopyrite and apatite. Hematite occurs due to weathering.

The greenalite occurs as Al rich with moderate Mg content, or Al/Mg low greenalite. It occurs as greenalite-siderite-quartz-pyrite or greenalite-siderite or greenalite-quartz assemblages. The greenalite is often overprinted by stilpnomelane, minnesotaite or both. The Al poor greenalite is often the dominant component of the mesobands showing a slightly brown colouring with dark diffuse or sharp patches of more greenalite.

This location is 70 kilometres north-west of Cue along the Beringarra-Cue Road. Access is a few kilometres north of where the road passes through the gap in the Weld Range, the gravel track heading west to the area. The Mindoolah gold area is a compact location of workings approximately 500 metres east-west and the same north-south. Small time modern gold mining has seen a small shallow pit, a couple of large trenches, and much mullock and disturbance. The preservation of the historic workings is not known.

The field was active from 1906 to 1909 as a prospectors field, before interest waned. A very small amount of activity is also reported in the late 1930's. Information on the field provides several mine names, their owners, and tonnages, with little further details.

One report in 1907 lists the following mine names, with 85 people on the field. P.A. 714 A. Shiels and L.S. Smith; P.A. 723 J. Oliver, Eustace Cashman and William McDeed, P.A. 744 P. McCann, J. King, and J. Pearce, P.A. 750 Smith and Hackett, as well as about 5 other more minor leases.

A.A. Spencer Constructed a 10 head battery on the field to crush from his own lease, and for other prospectors. Often referred to as Spencer's Battery, its official name was Main Reef Battery.

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References