Attributes of Skaergaard-Type PGE Reefs James D. Miller, Jr.1 and Jens C. Ø. Andersen2 1Minnesota Geological Survey, c/o NRRI, University of Minnesota-Duluth, 5013 Miller Trunk Hwy., Duluth, MN, 55811 , USA 2Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 3SE UK e-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] Stratiform, platinum group element (PGE) peridotite, pyroxenite, and dunite are usually deposits have long been known to occur in quantitatively minor. When well-differentiated, ultramafic-mafic intrusive complexes such as such intrusions display a simplified cumulus Bushveld and Stillwater (Naldrett, 1989b). stratigraphy following the scheme: Ol or Pl only-> Commonly known as PGE reefs, such deposits are Ol + Pl -> Pl + Cpx + FeOx ± Ol -> Pl + Cpx + typically found near the transition from ultramafic FeOx + Ol + Ap. They have a strong cryptic to mafic cumulates where they occur as 1-3 meter layering towards iron-enrichment indicative of thick intervals enriched in PGEs (1-20 ppm) and Fenner-type differentiation. They differ from trace to moderate amounts of sulfide (0.5-5 wt %). classic PGE reef-bearing intrusions by lacking a However, relatively recent discoveries have significant ultramafic component (early olivine- demonstrated that potentially economic stratiform only crystallization is minor to absent in most PGE mineralization may also occur in tholeiitic tholeiitic intrusions) and by being poor in mafic layered intrusions. Au- and PGE-bearing orthopyroxene (inverted pigeonite is rarely a layers