The article demonstrates a new technique that can be used to determine the age of calcite crystallisation using the decay of ¹⁷⁶Lu to ¹⁷⁶Hf. The technique is novel because (a) Lu–Hf radiometric dating is rarely applied to calcite and (b) this is the first instance where analysis has been conducted by ablating the sample with a laser beam rather than bulk dissolution. By using laser ablation the original context of the sample is preserved.