Strontian Mines

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Inverness County

Condition (NatureScot)

Description

Strontian Mines Strontian Mines Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is located approximately four kilometres north of the settlement of Strontian and encompasses open-cast quarries and mine shafts together with associated spoil heaps relating to the internationally significant Strontian Main Vein – a long, narrow but deep east-west trending mineralised shear zone that is the world type locality for two minerals and an element. The central section of the Strontian Main Vein is mineralogically the most important and yields a variety of different minerals, the most abundant of which are: barytes (BaSO4), galena (PbS), sphalerite or zinc blende (ZnS), calcite (CaCO3), quartz (SiO2), chalcedony (SiO2) and pyrites (FeS2). Five rare minerals are present in the site: strontianite (SrCO3), from which the element strontium was first isolated in 1791; harmotome and brewsterite, both of which are barium-containing; and heulandite-Sr and heulandite-Ba which within Britain are known only from the Strontian mines. The mineral strontianite, and therefore the element strontium, and the mineral brewsterite were first recorded from the Strontian mines, conferring upon this location the status of ‘type locality’. Strontianite can still be found on some of the spoil heaps together with good samples of galena and barytes. Brewsterite and harmotome are more restricted in their distribution. The opencast part of the workings affords an excellent opportunity to study the main vein, its contacts and geological context.