Early Proterozoic layered intrusions, about 2440 Ma in age, are widespread over a large area of the northeastern Fennoscandian Shield in Finland, Sweden and the Soviet Union. Only one intrusion, the Kukkola intrusion, is encountered in Sweden whereas in Finland, their number exceeds twenty. These are concentrated principally in two areas, the dicontinuous Tornio-Närdnkävaara intrusion belt which crosses northern Finland and the Koitelainen intrusion with its satellites located in central Finnish Lapland. The intrusions in the Soviet Union are concentrated in three areas: (i) on the Kola Peninsula, (ii) in the Paanajärvi area close to the Finnish border and (iii) northeast of Lake Onega. Examples of all the ore types characteristic of layered intrusions have been found in these intrusions. Chromitite layers are encountered in the Kukkola/Tornio, Kemi, Penikat, Koitelainen and Burakovsky intrusions, but only one, the Kemi chromitite, has so far been mined. The Portimo, Koillismaa, Monchegorsk and Fedorova intrusions are characterized by PGE-bearing Cu-Ni-deposits in their marginal series. Mineralized zones enriched in PGE are also encountered in the layered series. Those in the Penikat intrusion and in the Portimo intrusions are the most remarkable and the best known to date. Vanadium-bearing Fe-Ti-oxide layers are encountered in several intrusions, but only one, the Mustavaara deposit, is presently being exploited. Two types of parental magma have tentatively been proposed for these intrusions. The first type is represented by a magma which was relatively rich in magnesium and chromium and was as a whole boninitic in composition, whereas the plagioclase-rich intrusions and megacyclic units are interpreted as having crystallized from a magma which was greatly depleted in these elements, especially Cr, and had melted crustal material incorporated in it. The emplacement of the early Proterozoic layered intrusions in Fennoscandia was part of the world-wide igneous activity indicated by other layered intrusions and mafic dyke swarms of similar age in other ancient cratons, i.e. the Jimberlana intrusion in Australia, the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe, the Scouric picrite suite in Scotland, the Hearst-Matachewan dyke swarm, Copper Cliff Formation and East Bull Lake intrusion in Ontario, Canada, and the Vestfold Hills and Napier Complex dyke swarms in Antarctica. This almost contemporaneous occurrence in different parts of the world would suggest a more intimate relationship between the Fennoscandian Shield, northwest Scotland, Canadian Shield, Yilgarn Block, Zimbabwe Craton and East Antarctic Shield at the beginning of the Proterozoic than at present. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.
