Climax Mine molybdenum ore (5.3 cm across at its base) - molybdenite-quartz veins in alkaline granite from the Climax Mine, Lake County, central Colorado, USA.

Dark silvery gray = molybdenite (MoS2). Medium gray = quartz Light colored areas = alkaline granite

Central Colorado’s Climax Mine is the largest molybdenum mine on Earth. It's located in the Southern Rocky Mountains, near the northern end of the Rio Grande Rift, a large, Neogene-aged rift valley on the eastern side of the Colorado Plateau.

Molybdenum (Mo - “moly”) mineralization at the Climax Mine occurred as a series of igneous bodies intruded through Proterozoic basement rocks (gneisses and granites). Seven intrusive bodies make up the composite Climax Stock (Oligocene, 24-33 m.y.). Three of them produced significant moly mineralization in the form of molybdenite-quartz veins and disseminated molybdenite (MoS2 - molybdenum sulfide).

The rocks of the Climax Stock are alkaline felsic intrusives. They range from porphyritic alkaline rhyolites to alkaline aplites to porphyritic alkaline granites. In map view, the igneous bodies of the Climax Stock form a roughly circular structure. In cross-section view, each intrusion has an inverted bowl shape.