Cangai is a locality in Clarence Valley Council LGA, within the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.

Cangai lies near the Gibraltar Range, within the catchment of Mann River, which flows through the eastern part of the locality.

[2] Cangai takes its name from a pastoral run of approximately 8000 acres, originally known as 'Cangi', on the Mann River.

[11] Gold mining was already in decline, before the chance discovery, by a man hunting koala for skins, of a mineralised outcrop containing copper ore in 1901.

By 1908, it had a population of around 800, and had one hotel, a public hall, a school, a police station, two general stores and two butcher shops.

[13] In 1911, an 8 km long narrow-gauge tramway was put into service to supply the reverberatory furnaces with timber to be used as fuel.

[4][8] The copper smelter and open-air ore 'calcination' process resulted in extensive air pollution with sulphur dioxide.