Deposits with economic tin (Sn) or tungsten (W)–molybdenum (Mo) are widespread in north-east Queensland (Figure 1) ǰ ranging etween-14.40 and-19.50 and 143.50‒146.20. This area used to e one of the ma or sources of Sn and W in Australia, with mineralisation discovered and exploited from the 1880s. According to the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) database (von Gnielinski, 2015) this region has 792 Sn deposits and 132 W deposits. The large number indicates that geological conditions are generally favourable for Sn-W-Mo mineralisation; however, this area contains less than 10% of Australia’s Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) of Sn and< 13% of the country’s EDR of tungsten (Brit et al, 2015). The deposits are generally small compared to the giant deposits of other parts of the world. For exampleǰ the Dahutang tungsten and the Ge iu tin deposits in China contain~ 1 Mt W and~ 3 Mt Sn (non-ORC compliant) ǰ respectively (Cheng et al, 2013; Mao et al, 2013). The deposits have different metal associations and can e classified into W-dominantǰ W-Mo-Biǰ and Sn-dominant deposits. These subtypes also have distinctive features and time–space distributions. The deposits are summarised below using this scheme for first-order classification.