Chapter 4 Scottish mineral Geological Conservation Review sites – Magmatic and skarn minerals

Abstract

This, the fourth paper on Scottish Mineral GCR sites, deals with minerals produced during the late stages of granitic rocks creation. Five sites are described and interpreted, encompassing both minerals within intrusive rocks and those which formed in the adjacent country rocks. The former range from previously-mined, porphyry-style copper-molybdnum sulphide concentrations to one of the few Scottish occurrences of tungsten mineralisation. Mineral deposits formed in mostly calcareous country rocks by the exchange of elements between granitic bodies and them are generally referred to as skarns. They are geographically more widespread than the within-granite bodies, and comprise calc-silicate minerals such as diopside, grossular garnet, wollastonite and, more rarely vesuvianite. In one instance, the skarns contain a wide range of mineral assemblages including some with boron fluoride minerals and mineable concentrations of iron ore. Probably the most enigmatic of these is an apparent exoskarn type assemblage but is devoid of an associated granite.