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N E P H E L I N E S Y E N I T E A N D I R O N O R ED E P O S I T S I N G R E E N L A N D

By RichardBogvad*

T E voyages of exploration toGreenlandat hebeginning of theseventeenth century aroused interest n he possibilities of mineralwealth in the country. As a result King Christian IV in 1605 and 1606equipped two expeditions to collect silver, which was supposed to havebeen found in large quantities, but only valueless mica was brought home.After this disappointment thematter was allowed to rest for barely acentury,when fresh investigations werestarted; these have-sometimeswith ong intervals-been continueduntil today ( 2 ; 4). Much time hasbeen devoted to he investigation of copperandgraphiteoccurrences;coal (lignite) has been mined for wo centuries, andmarble has beenquarried. But so far heonly mineral foundwhichcanbe profitablvmineds cryolite rom vigtut.Recently,however, nepheline syeniteand iron ore deposits have been investigated.NEPHELINEYENITEInreenland nephelinesyenite' occurs in the Kangerd-

lugssuaq district onhe eastcoast (18, p. 38; 19, p. 41); be-tween the Arsuk and Ika fjordson hewest coast (17, p. 387;6) and between Julianehaab andKagssiarssuk in southern Green-land (15, p. 3 5 ; 16, p. 1 3 2 ; 1 7 ;20, p. 60). Only inhe last-mentioneddistrict,which anbe divided into the Igdlerfigsalikand Ilimausak-Kangerdluarsukmassifs, are there large quantitiesof thezirconium-bearing min-eral eudialyte'. K. L. Giesecke( 1 O), who made the first sys-tematic mineralogical investiga-tion of Greenland rom 1806to 1813 , visited the deposits inthe Kangerdluarsuk district butig. 1.

Chief geologist, Kryolitselskabet Oresund A/S (T he C ryolite Com pany), Copenhagen.'Igneous rocks characterized by thepredominance of alkalielspar, ndnephelite,NaAlSiO,.A silicate of sodium, zirconium, calcium , iron, and others.

86

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Fig. 2. Julianehaabdistrict.mistook the red eudialyte for garnet.

Steenstrup (15 ; 16) started geological investigations in this districtin 1874, and, in 1888 and 1899, led two expeditions to the region. Theseexpeditions were organized by the cryolite industry to collect eudialytewhich, it was hoped, might prove useful in the production of gas (Wels-bach) mantles 1 3 ) . Working teams fromvigtut blasted outheeudialyte from the pegmatite dyke on the small island of Kekertausak andcollected loose blocks in the naujaite3 talus near the coast a t the head ofKangerdluarsuk. The material was arried tohe ship in sacks andbaskets or was packed in barrels and rolled down the mountain. During-__ SNaujaite, odalite-foyaite,kakortokite, ndujavrite revariedypes of nephelinesyenite of peculiar mineralogical composition.

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Fig. 3 . At the headofKangerdluarsuk Fjord. Extreme eft,Julianehaab granite; the dark partly stratlcolouredarea n the centre is naujaitewhich farther to the right is replaced by lujavriteand the ban

the two years some sixty metric tons of material containing eudialytewere obtained, the material being sorted by hand picking and magneticseparation. However, t proved to bempossible to find anymarketfor he eudialyte product,although hemagneticproduct containingarfvedsonite4 and other substances was used by the steel industry.In 1900 Ussingand Bfiggildmade a thorough investigation of thenepheline syenite area, the geology of which has been reviewed in Ussing'sclassical report (17). E. Wegmann (20 ) visited the deposits in 1936 and,as a result ofhis investigations, suggested theories, which were n partnew,concerning their origin. Later, n 1946, A.Noe-Nygaard made

a preliminary investigation of the region for a new geological map.Towards the end of the 1930 s there was a renewed interest in eudi-alyte because of possible use in the porcelain industry. In 1939 the writerwent to the Julianehaab district on behalf of the cryolite industry and,in agreement with the Greenland Administration, began investigations ofthe nepheline syenites to determine whether heymightbe profitably

mined. All known localities were visited; no ichnew deposits werefound.Kangerdluarsuk must be regarded as the best area for mining develop-ment (Fig. 3 ) . The harbour conditions are fairly good and five differentkind of rocks containing eudialyte are found. Naujaite-sodalite-foyaite ,partly poor and partly rich in eudialyte, covers an area (from Kangerd-luarsuk to Tunugdliarfik) of a t least 30 sq. km. with a thickness of severalhundred metres. The average content of eudialyte is only 2 . 5 per cent,although there are areas with a higher content. Kakortokitez covers somei o sq. km. of thicknesses of up to 400 m. and consists of alternating black,red,andwhite sheets.Of black andwhitekakortokite here are morethanone billion tons containing 4 o 5 per cent eudialyte. The red

A silicate of sodium and iron chiefly, belonging to the amphibole group.5See footnote 3 .

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Fig. 4. Miningnephelinesyenite in Kangerdluarsuk. Near he op of the mountain thealternating sheets of kakortokite are conspicuous.

oxides of cerium, anthanum, praseodymium, andothers 3 , p. 494). Inprevious analyses of the mineral we find reports of niobium (columbiumor tantalum contents. Recently spectrographic analyses of eudialyte fromnaujaite and kakortokite showed 0.1 to 0.6 per cent niobium and 0.03 to0.1 per cent tantalum (Sture Landergren). In addition to these metals i twill no doubt be possible to find still more interesting elements in such apeculiar chemical complex.

Even though the nepheline syenite deposits of the Julianehaab districtare much smaller than heRussian. deposits of the Kolski Poluostrov(Kola Peninsula) (7 ; 14) and, unlike the Swedish and Norwegian depositsa t Alnon (9), Norra Karr l ) , and Fen ( 5 j , are f a r from any industrialcentre, he possibility of economic importance should not be excluded.

IRON ND IRONOREGreenland has both native .iron and ironore 2 ; 4). In the basaltmountains of the Disko district telluric iron occurs in blocks weighing upto 25 metric tons. The best known deposit is a t Uifakon Disko 0Four blocks of meteoric iron have been removed from Kap York in the

Thule district. Three of these, the largest of which weighed 100 tons,were taken to the U.S.A. by Robert Peary, and Knud Rasmussen broughtback a fourth block to Denmark.Both these occurrenceswere earlydiscovered by the Greenlanders who hammered the iron into knives, andharpoon and arrow points. Otherwise t h e native iron is of no practicalimportance.

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Fig. S The gneiss mountains a t Ivigtut.

Of the comparatively poorGreenland ron ores pyrrhotite, pyrite,and siderite may be mentioned, but these have not been found in quantitiessufficient to justify mining. Some siderite, which occurs as a by-productfrom the milling of cryolite, is used to produce a mall amount of pig iron.

Magnetite is found nmany places inGreenlandbut,withafewexceptions, only in insignificant quantities. Even the fair-sized deposit a tKap Gustav Holm, found by the writer on Knud Rasmussen's 7th Thuleexpedition to he east coast is without

Fig. 6 . Ivigtut district.

economic valuebecause of thetransportation problems. Thedeposit occurs in a mountainousarea, situated 600 111. above sealevel, and is approached by adificult glacier. T he only 'de-posit so far known which maypossibly be promising is that a tGr@nnedal n Arsuk Fjord nearIvigtut.

The heavily glaciated gneissmountains of theArsuk Fjordarea (Fig. 5 , which in additionto hecryolite deposit containmassifs of syenite and nephelinesyenite, have een isited bymany geologists in search of new

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N E P H E L I N EY E N I T END IRON ORE DEPOSITS IN GREENLAND 93cryolite deposits. Even though themain features of the origin of the cryolitehad been established they did not succeed in finding another Ivigtut. Theinvestigations were continued in 193 8 when the writer introduced specialmethod fordetecting fluorine in rocks, and the ock ormationsweresystematically explored in hewhole jord district. During he courseof this investigation severalhand-sizedpieces of pure magnetite werefound between Ika Fjord and Gr$nnedal, in an area where long stretchesof the stream beds are coloured a rusty red. It later appeared, however,that he deposit was identical with that found in 1880 by the Swedishgeologist N. 0 Holst (12, p. 27).

Immediately after the Second World War geological investigationsof this area were resumed, and measurements with a simple magnetometerrevealed two nearly adjacent areas with marked magnetic anomalies. Inthe years that followed these were more precisely delimited by a systematicmagnetic measurement of the whole area, and several new deposits werefound.This investigation (Fig. 8) was made by he DanishMeteoro-logical Institute under the leadership of V. Laursen and J. Espersen. Atthe same time Greenlanders dug trenches in the places containing mostiron,and average samples were taken of the ore. Finally, thewriter,assisted by H. Ramberg from theGeological Survey of Greenland, mappedthe geology of the area.The Gr9nnedal deposit (Fig. 9) is situated 4 km. from the sea a t analtitude of300 to 400 m. Access is comparatively easy as thegroundrises evenly from the American base a t the coast, but a stream crosses theroute. The magnetic iron ore occurs together with limestone and sideritealong a dykesystem of diabase approximately 500 m. thick, which intrudesor is enclosed in nepheline syenite. Samples of pure magnetite have beenanalyzed by A. H. Nielsen who gives the following values for some ofthe constituents: FeO, 26.03%; Fe,O,, 68.96%; TiOz,0.89,; MnO, 0.62:;;S, 0.01% and P, 0.048/,. However, average samples from he renchescontain considerably less ironandmore phosphorus, namely from 24.0per cent to 46.7 per cent iron and from 0.076 per cent to 1.54 per centphosphorus.

Kryolitselskabet Oresund A/S (The CryoliteCompany), n agree-mentwith heGreenland Administration, plans toundertakediamonddrilling a t the ron deposit. A road has alreadybeenconstructedandhouseshave beenbuiltfor he drillers (Fig. 7) . Work will commencesome time in the spring of 1950 when the snow has melted a t Gr@nnedal.

REFERENCES( 1 ) Adamson, 0 J. The petrology of the Norra Karr district. G e o l . Foren. i S t o c k(2) Ball, Sydney H. T he mineral resources of Greenland. Medd om G r l n . Vol. 63,

holm Forb Vol. 66 (1944) p. 113.N o . 1 (1922) pp. 1-60.

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94 ARCTIC VOL. 3, NO 2(3)B@ggild, 0 B. MineralogiaGroenlandica. Medd. o m GrZn Vol. 32 (1905)pp.(4) B@gvad,Richard.Grginlandommineralproducerende land. Grpnlandsbogen.Copenhagen1950) (In press).5 ) Br gger, 1 . C. DasFengebiet in Telemark, Sonvegen. Vidensk. elsk. krifter

I Ma them . natu rv. klasse. No. 9. (1921).(6) Callisen, Karen. Igneousocksof the Ivigtutegion, Greenland, I. Medd. oGrZn Vol. 131, S o 8 (1943) pp. 1-74.(7) Chasanowitsh,K. I . Geologische Ubersicht undnutzbareMineraliendes nord-westlichenTeiles der Tundren vonLowosersk (Lujawr-Urt). Arb LeningraderNatur f .Ges . 65,1. 1936)Ref.: NeuesJakrbuch 11, 1938) p. 373.(8) Deeth, H. R. andC. J. Koenig. Recent developments in mining,processing,andapplication ofnepheline syenite from Blue Mountain, Ontario. Am. Inst. of MiningandMetallurgicalEngineers. MiningTechnology 12, So 4, Tech. Pub. No. 2406(1948)pp. 1-8.

(9) Eckermann, H. von. The alkalinedistrictof Alno Island. Sveriges Geol.Under-sdkn. Ser. Ca, No. 36 (1948) pp. 1-176.10) Giesecke, K. L. MineralogischesReisejournaliber Gronland 1806-13. Medd.

om G r p n . Vol. 35 (1910) pp. 1-478.(11)Hevesy, G. de.Recherches sur les PropriCtCs du hafnium. Kgl.DanskeVidensk.Selsk.Mathem. fys.Medd. Vol. 6, No. 7 (1925) pp. 1-149.( 1 2 ) Holst, N. 0 ResaillGronland. Sveriges Geol.Undersokn. Ser.C, No. 81(13)Rflrdam, K. Zirkonsyre, remstillet af Eudialyt. Medd. om Gr in. Vol. 7, No. 2(1893) pp. 47-53.(14) Sowjetwirtschaft und Aussenhandel. So 9, p. 13 and No. IS, p. 10 (Handelsvertretungder UdSSR inDeutsFhland)1937)Berlin.(IS) Steenstrup, K . J. V. Bemarkninger til et geognostiskoversigtskaart over endel afJulianehaabsDistrikt. Medd. om GrZn Vol. 2, No. 2 (1881)pp. 27-41.(16)Steenstrup,K. J. V. Geologiske og antikvariske agttagelser i JulianehaabDistrikt.M e d d . o m G r Z n . Vol. 34, No. 5 (1910) pp. 115-154.(17)Ussing, S V. Geology of the country around Julianehaab, Greenland. Beretningom dengeologiskeekspedition til Julianehaab Distrikt i sommeren 1900. Medd. on/

GrZn Vol. 381912) pp. 1-426.18) Wager, L,. R. Geologicalnvestigationsn ast Greenland, 1. Medd. o Grdn.

(19) Wager, L. R. Geological nvestigations neast Greenland, IV. Medd. o m G r d n .(20) Wegmann,C. E. Geologicalnvestigationsn southern Greenland, I. Medd. o w

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(1886) pp. 1-68.

VOI. 105, SO (1934) p. 1-46.Vol. 134, NO.5 (1947) pp.,l-62.GrZn. Vol. 113, S o 2 (1938) pp. 1-148.

N o t e : On h e map of th e Julianehaab district Fig. 2 Kagssiarssuk n Tunugdliarfik Fjordis spelled Kagsiarsuk.