ABSTRACT
The geology of China is dominated by the North China, Yangtze, and Tarim cratons, which are surrounded by Phanerozoic mobile belts. Despite voluminous Precambrian rocks, no significant Archean or Proterozoic gold deposits are recognized in China. Orogenic lode gold deposits contain about 60% of the nation’s gold resource within oceanic terranes of the mobile belts and in deformed craton margins. They include: (1) Variscan deposits formed in north-central and NW China during ocean closures between the Tarim, North China, and Angaran cratons; (2) Early Mesozoic deposits of central China generated during North China-Yangtze craton collision forming the western Qinling belt; and (3) Yanshanian deposits emplaced along the margins of the North China craton during lithospheric thinning. Yanshanian tectonism also led to development of gold-rich copper porphyry and skarn deposits in the Yangtze River region of eastern China. Carlin-like gold deposits, probably of Mesozoic age, developed in tectonically complex environments along the NW and SW margins of the Yangtze craton. Small epithermal gold deposits are scattered across China, with the most economic of these ores forming at ca. 1 Ma in an oceanic arc system on NE Taiwan.
