The Stillwater igneous complex is a large layered mafic intrusion (LMI) located in southern Montana in Stillwater, Sweet Grass and Park Counties. The complex is exposed across 30 miles (48 km) of the north flank of the Beartooth Mountain Range. The complex has extensive reserves of chromium ore and has a history of being mined for chromium. More recent mining activity has produced palladium and other platinum group elements.
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👉 Stillwater igneous complex in the context of Troctolite
Troctolite /ˈtrɒktəlaɪt/ (from Greek τρώκτης 'trout' and λίθος 'stone') is a mafic intrusive rock type. It consists essentially of major but variable amounts of olivine and calcic plagioclase along with minor pyroxene. It is an olivine-rich anorthosite, or a pyroxene-depleted relative of gabbro. However, unlike gabbro, no troctolite corresponds in composition to a partial melt of peridotite. Thus, troctolite is necessarily a cumulate of crystals that have fractionated from melt.
Troctolite is found in some layered intrusions such as in the Archean Windimurra intrusion of Western Australia, the Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt magmatic sulfide deposit of northern Labrador, the Stillwater igneous complex of Montana, the Duluth Complex of the North American Midcontinent Rift, and the Tertiary Rhum layered intrusion of the island of Rùm, Scotland. Troctolite is also found, for example, in the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa and in the Lizard complex in Cornwall.
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Stillwater igneous complex in the context of Chromitite
Chromitite is an igneous cumulate rock composed mostly of the mineral chromite. It is found in layered intrusions such as the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, the Stillwater igneous complex in Montana and the Ring of Fire discovery in Ontario.
Chromitite typically forms as orthocumulate layered lenses in peridotite rocks, at times intergrown with other oxides such as magnetite and ilmenite, and silicates such as olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar (mainly anorthite), and garnet crystals. The chromium rich garnet uvarovite forms in interbedded layers with chromitite.