Molybdenum mineralisation near Chapel of Garioch, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire

.Molybdenum and tungsten mineralisation hosted in quartz veins is spatially associated with the Middleton Granite, a small stock apparently rooted in the buried roof of the large Bennachie pluton. The granite is emplaced in Dalradian schist. The veins are usually encased within granite which is intensely sericitised (greisenised?); the alteration and mineralisation are believed to be coeval. Exposure is poor and wall boulders were used for prospecting. Power augering was employed to obtain base of drift samples over those parts of the suspected mineralised area which were readily accessible. Further samples were taken from a gas pipeline trench being dug across part of the area. All samples were analysed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) for a range of trace elements, including tungsten, molybdenum and the main base metals. Geophysical surveys were used to define the granite stock, an epidiorite body (a sill?) which caps the hill and a late (Tertiary?) E-W basic dyke. In an attempt to examine the distribution of mineral veining, four short inclined boreholes were drilled in the Dalradian schists to the east of the granite stock and three into the granite itself. A total of 334m were drilled with about 70% recovery. Six holes were sampled for XRF analysis. The drilling intersected minor quartz-molybdenite mineralisation in both schist and granite.