Mining Institute of Scotland (MIS)

Virtual

Our first lecture of the new year will be delivered virtually by Fraser Gardiner, CEO and MD of Aberdeen Minerals.

The Arthrath deposit is located outside the town of Ellon in east Aberdeenshire and is the largest known nickel deposit in the UK. Nickel-copper mineralised sulphides were discovered by RTZ (Rio Tinto) in 1968 following a report of nickel toxicity in the area's soils by the Macaulay Institute of Soil Research. Anecdotally, the high nickel levels were causing stunted growth in neeps. Nickel-copper sulphides at Arthrath are hosted within a 7 kilometre long, dyke-like gabbroic intrusion, which formed as an east-west trending appendage to the Arnage-Haddo House Intrusion during the Grampian Event of the Caledonian Orogeny (c.470 Ma). Aberdeen Minerals is exploring Arthrath and its surrounding district using the latest geological models and exploration technology, looking deeper and in more detail than previous exploration for 'conduit-related' magmatic sulphide deposits.

The talk will describe the geology of the deposit, explore the latest drilling, geophysics and geological studies, and consider the broader potential for magmatic sulphide deposits in North East Scotland.

Fraser graduated in 1997 from Glasgow with a BSc in Geology and Applied Geology. His career started as a gold exploration geologist in Bulgaria and he has since worked in technical and leadership roles on international discovery, exploration and mine development projects. He finally landed his first Scottish exploration job in July 2022 when he joined Aberdeen Minerals as Chief Executive Officer, and he is now based in Ellon.

This meeting will be presented online. If you wish to attend via MS Teams, then please use the following meeting link:

teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YmUwNzZmOGYtYmZhYy00MDM4LWI4MmMtMmJmZDRhNmQyMTZj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bf5f4046-a1dc-4119-aa8a-bfb9fbf46271%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22099f5fce-fb7e-4b08-bd21-e2f94e2c311c%22%7d

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