Platinum-group element mineralization within two mafic/ultramafic intrusions of the British Palaeogene Igneous Province

• Main Authors: Prout, Sarah J., Andersen, Jens, Barnes, Sarah-Jane, Power, Matthew R.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Sciences de la terre (géologie; géographie); Greenland; Mull; Iceland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://constellation.uqac.ca/3597/1/Platinum-group%20element%20mineralization%20within%20two%20mafic-ultramafic%20intrusions%20of%20the%20British.pdf

Recent work on Eastern Greenland (e.g. Andersen et al. 1998; Bird et al. 1995), Iceland (Andersen et al. 2002) and North West Scotland (e.g. Butcher et al. 1999; Pirrie et al. 2000) has shown that the PGE-enriched magmatism is a ubiquitous and long-lived feature of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). The British Palaeogene Igneous Province (well-exposed along the north western seaboard of the British Isles) forms the south western expression of the NAIP and is characterised by voluminous flood basalts, extensive dyke swarms and several central intrusive complexes (Figure 1a). Chromitite-hosted PGE mineralisation is present in association with mafic and ultramafic intrusions within at least three of these central complexes. Of these, the notable example is the Rum intrusion where well-documented PGE mineralisation occurs throughout the central intrusive complex (Butcher et al. 1999; Power et al. 2000; Power and Andersen, 2001). This study presents detailed mineralogical and geochemical analyses of the PGE-bearing mafic – ultramafic intrusions on Mull (the Ben Buie intrusion) and on Skye (the Peridotite Series of the Cuillin Complex) (Pirrie et al. 2000).