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Critical-Ireland: Using Irish mafic intrusions as a natural laboratory to understand PGE mineralising processes

Michael Stock1 , Jack Beckwith1, Eshbal Geifman1, Anna Morrison1, Eloise Bretagne1, Elliot Carter2, Mark Cooper3, Marian Holness3, Jens Andersen4, Christian Huber5, David Chew1

  • Affiliations: 1School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; 2School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Keele University, Keele, UK; 3Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; 4Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK; 5Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence RI, USA 

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Tuesday 16:30 - 18:30, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 34

  • Programme No: 4.1.25

  • Theme 4 > Session 1

Abstract

The European Commission has identified Platinum Group Elements (PGEs) as "critical raw materials" which are essential in modern green technologies but have a high risk to supply, urgently requiring innovative research to assist in locating new deposits. Palaeogene igneous centres in the north of Ireland have been identified as promising European PGE exploration targets and provide a unique opportunity to understand mineralising processes due to excellent bedrock exposure and the availability of high-resolution Tellus geophysical data. Critical-Ireland is an ongoing multidisciplinary project which is using these Irish centres as a natural laboratory to interrogate the first-order mechanisms of PGE deposit formation in layered mafic intrusions and dyke/sill complexes. This presentation will give a summary of research progress to date, highlighting the link between discreet project components and demonstrating how the research team are using Irish Palaeogene centres to target outstanding issues in our current understanding of PGE deposit formation. This includes: using high-precision trace element data to characterise compositional/thermal perturbations and PGE enrichment in the Irish lithospheric mantle; using textural and geochemical datasets to constrain the complex multi-stage crustal processes which generate mineralisation in mafic intrusions; and developing global physical (i.e. thermal) models to simulate magma-country rock interactions during crustal magma transport. Project results will not only improve our understanding of physicochemical processes in ancient mineralised magma systems but will also inform future interpretations of the mantle/crustal processes operating beneath active volcanoes today.