9. A natural laboratory for critical metals investigations in the Mourne Mountains granites

Certain metals that are vital for many modern technologies occur naturally in the Mourne Mountains Complex of County Down, Northern Ireland. These include niobium, tantalum and the rare earth elements. Using the Tellus geochemistry data and the results of more detailed sampling, we have investigated their geological sources in granite bedrock and their dispersion in stream sediments. From this res…