Poona, Cue Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

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

A collection of Western Australian mineral specimens wouldn't be complete without an emerald from Poona. The best known of the emerald deposits from the State. The quality of the emeralds from Poona have overall been on par or better than elsewhere in Western Australia. Its all relative though. The photographs on Mindat of Poona specimens represent the top shelf for stone quality from the location. It hasn't been enough to generate a profitable income for miners, and the site has mostly been left to fossickers.

The most significant mine on the field is Aga Khan. The history of the field will be written under this sub-locality, as many of the leases covered both Aga Khan and neighbouring deposits, so it is impossible to write about the various mines in isolation from Aga Khan.

Emeralds are found within the greenstone belt in quartz veins with margarite and topaz cutting dark-brown biotite-phlogopite schists, adjacent to milky quartz lens. Emerald crystals are light to deep green to 40mm found in the veins of margarite-quartz, quartz-muscovite, or beryl quartz, or along the edges of these bodies. The crystals associated with quartz, feldspar, garnet and muscovite, tend to be light green or colourless beryl, zoned various shades of green, cloudy with fractures and inclusions of mica, ilmenite, apatite, and fluid inclusions.

High quality emeralds are very rare from the field, and are usually less than 2cm long and 1cm in diameter. Emeralds 15cm long and 5cm diameter are considered the largest the field can produce, and are exceptionally rare.

Ruby, sapphire and alexandrite are found only as small fragments at a location called Ruby mine. Relatively rare species russellite is found in the pegmatite 8 kilometres north-east of Poona. An alluvial cassiterite field in the eastern portion of the field. Translucent fluorite to 3cm at an un-named working on the field. Chrysoberyl from an un-named working south of Poona.

Locality listings for the Poona area are difficult, as there are many un-named workings up to 20 kms south, east and west. Mindat has listed the main named sites and those of mineralogical interest only. Geology information could only be found for the field in general.

Please note 'Poona Private Camp' showing on Google maps, is not the location of the mining camp relics, consisting of a shed, fuel tank, and processing equipment. The Poona sub-heading co-ordinates have been listed correctly at the time of writing.

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References