Geodynamic settings and tectonic model of skarn gold deposits in China: an overview

Abstract

Seventy skarn-type gold deposits, including 1 super-large, 19 large and 24 medium-sized, are known from different geotectonic units of China. They contain a total resource of approximately 1000 t of gold (625 t in South China), and account for 20% of China's gold reserves. These skarn deposits are sited in collisional orogenic belts, fault-controlled magmatic belts and reactivated cratonic margins. All of the Chinese skarn gold provinces were affected by Phanerozoic collisional orogenesis. The timing of the metallogenic events and the spatial–temporal distribution of the Chinese skarn gold deposits indicates that they were formed during ore-forming processes linked to the transition from shortening to extension in the geodynamic evolution of a collision orogen, and not to subduction systems as is commonly advocated for porphyry copper systems around the Pacific Rim.