Gold Xinjiang

Mineralium Deposita (2002) 37: 393418
DOI 10.1007/s00126-001-0243-6
A RT I C L E
Zongyao Rui Richard J. Goldfarb Yumin Qiu

Taihe Zhou Renyi Chen Franco Pirajno Grace Yun
Paleozoicearly Mesozoic gold deposits of the

Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwestern China
Received: 23 February 2000 / Accepted: 10 October 2001 / Published online: 15 January 2002
Springer-Verlag 2002
Abstract The late Paleozoicearly Mesozoic tectonic

evolution of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwestern China provided a favorable geological setting for the
formation of lode gold deposits along the sutures between a number of the major Eastern Asia cratonic
Z. Rui
Institute of Mineral Deposits,
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences,
26 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, P.R. China
R.J. Goldfarb (&)
US Geological Survey, MS 964, Box 25046,
Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225, USA
E-mail: goldfarb@usgs.gov
R.J. Goldfarb
Centre for Global Metallogeny,
Dept. of Geology and Geophysics,
University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Y. Qiu
T. Zhou
Great Central Mines Limited and
Centaur Mining and Exploration Limited,
210 Kings Way, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205, Australia
R. Chen
Geological Survey of China,
Ministry of Land and Natural Resources,
Beijing 100812, P.R. China
F. Pirajno
Geological Survey of Western Australia,
100 Plain Street, East Perth, Western Australia 6004, Australia
G. Yun
Present address: Y. Qiu
Sino Mining Ltd., 7th Floor, Sea Plaza,
3A Xi Xin St., Xian 710004, P.R. China
Present address: Taihe Zhou
Sino-QZ Group, P.O. Box 2424,
Mt. Waverley, Victoria, 3149 Australia
blocks. These sutures are now represented by the Altay

Shan, Tian Shan, and Kunlun Shan ranges, with the
former two separated by the Junggar basin and the latter
two by the immense Tarim basin. In northernmost
Xinjiang, nal growth of the Altaid orogen, southward
from the Angara craton, is now recorded in the remote
mid- to late Paleozoic Altay Shan. Accreted Early to
Middle Devonian oceanic rock sequences contain typically small, precious-metal bearing FeCuZn VMS
deposits (e.g. Ashele). Orogenic gold deposits are widespread along the major Irtysh (e.g. Duyolanasayi, Saidi,
Taerde, Kabenbulake, Akexike, Shaerbulake) and
TuergenHongshanzui (e.g. Hongshanzui) fault systems,
as well as in structurally displaced terrane slivers of the
western Junggar (e.g. Hatu) and eastern Junggar areas.
Geological and geochronological constraints indicate a
generally Late Carboniferous to Early Permian episode
of gold deposition, which was coeval with the nal
stages of Altaid magmatism and large-scale, right-lateral
translation along older terrane-bounding faults. The
Tian Shan, an exceptionally gold-rich mountain range to
the west in the Central Asian republics, is only beginning
to be recognized for its gold potential in Xinjiang. In this
easternmost part to the range, northerly- and southerlydirected subduction/accretion of early to mid-Paleozoic
and mid- to late Paleozoic oceanic terranes, respectively,
to the Precambrian Yili block (central Tian Shan) was
associated with 400 to 250 Ma arc magmatism and
Carboniferous through Early Permian gold-forming
hydrothermal events. The more signicant resulting deposits in the terranes of the southern Tian Shan include
the Sawayaerdun orogenic deposit along the Kyrgyzstan
border and the epithermal and replacement deposits of
the Kanggurtag belt to the east in the Chol Tagh range.
Gold deposits of approximately the same age in the Yili
block include the Axi hot springs/epithermal deposit
near the Kazakhstan border and a series of small orogenic gold deposits south of Urumqi (e.g. Wangfeng).
Gold-rich porphyry copper deposits (e.g. Tuwu) dene
important new exploration targets in the northern Tian
Shan of Xinjiang. The northern foothills of the Kunlun
394
Shan of southern Xinjiang host scattered, small placer

gold deposits. Sources for the gold have not been identied, but are hypothesized to be orogenic gold veins
beneath the iceelds to the south. They are predicted to
have formed in the Tianshuihai terrane during its early
Mesozoic accretion to the amalgamated TarimQaidamKunlun cratonic block.
Keywords Altay Shan China Gold Tian Shan
Xinjiang
Introduction
In recent years, the Chinese government has been
making great eorts to develop the economy of westernmost China, which includes a general policy to accelerate mineral exploration. Much of this work has
been focused in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, a
1.66-million km2 area that comprises the northwestern
part of China (Fig. 1). For example, since 1986, the 305
Project jointly supported by the Chinese Ministry of

Sciences and Technology, the former Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources (now the Ministry of Land
and Mineral Resources), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Xinjiang Uigar Autonomous Region has
included studies on geotectonics, petrology, mineral
deposits, isotope geology, geochemistry, and geophysics
of Xinjiang.
Geological observations indicate that Xinjiang
Autonomous Region is an extremely promising area
from a minerals exploration standpoint, with numerous, recently-recognized gold deposits and prospects
(Table 1). The northern mountain ranges in the region,
the Altay Shan and Tian Shan, represent eastern
continuations of eastwest-trending Paleozoic orogenic
belts, which contain signicant gold resources within
Fig. 1. Location of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in northwestern China and surrounding provinces and countries. The
province is dominated by two large basins (the Tarim and Junggar)
that are separated by three high-relief mountain ranges (Altay
Shan, Tian Shan, and Kunlun Shan)
Eastern
Junggar
Orogenic
Epithermal
Adake
Jinshangou
Danjiadi-Su- Epithermal
angfengshan
Orogenic
Jinshan
0.7
0.4
1.4
0.2
Orogenic
3
2
Nanmingshui
1
0.3
CuAu skarn
Orogenic
Orogenic
Buerkesidai
10
Akesai
Qingshui
Orogenic
Tasite
10
Orogenic
Kelasayi
>5
Orogenic
Shaerbuliak
1
2
30
23
VMS
Orogenic
Ashele
Akexike
5.3
10
Geologically
inferred resource (t Au)
13.5
Orogenic
Saidu
Western
Junggar
Orogenic
Duolanasayi
5.1
Reserve
(t Au)
Magmatic
NiCu
Qiqiu I (Hatu Orogenic
district)
Saertuohai I Orogenic
Baogutu
Orogenic
Orogenic
Hongshanzui
Kelatongke
Orogenic
Aketishikan
Altay Shan
Type
Deposit
Region
1.05.0
31.2
2.2
6.1
8
7.3
4.26.9
6.5
7.5
0.15
1
7
8.3
0.51.7
Grade
(g/t Au)
Early Carboniferous andesite

and rhyolite
Early Carboniferous felsic to
intermediate volcanic and
hypabyssal rocks
Early Carboniferous ysch

Mid-Carboniferous tu, some
ore in hornfels near Late
Carboniferous granodiorite
Early Carboniferous limestone
Early Carboniferous tu and
graywacke
Early Carboniferous mac
volcanics and graywacke
Early Carboniferous mac
volcanics and graywacke
Mid Devonian volcaniclastics
Devonian phyllite, graywacke,

and carbonate
Devonian phyllite, graywacke,
and siltstone
Devonian mac volcanic rocks
Early Carboniferous ysch and
mac/intermediate volcanic rocks
Early Carboniferous ysch
and sheared granite
intermediate to mac dikes
Late Carboniferous norite in
macultramac complex
Early Carboniferous basalt
Neoprot. to Ordovician phyllite
Devonian phyllite and slate
Host rock
Kelameili fault system
Wenquan fault
Dalabute fault system

Irtysh fault system
Aermantai fault system
Aermantai fault system
Irtysh fault system
Irtysh fault system
Irtysh fault system

Irtysh fault system
Irtysh fault system
TuergenHongshanzui
fault system
TuergenHongshanzui
fault system
Irtysh fault system
Associated
major
structure
Early Carboniferous(?)
Carboniferous(?)
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Early Carboniferous
Late Carboniferous
Late Carboniferous
Late Carboniferous
Late Carboniferous
Carboniferous(?)
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Carboniferous(?)
Late Carboniferous
Early Permian
Late Carboniferous
Early Permian
EarlyMid Devonian
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Late Carboniferous
Carboniferous(?)
Carboniferous(?)
Deposit age
Table 1. Summary of gold resources and geology of major gold deposits in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwestern China. Almost all of the gold deposits were formed during
Carboniferous to Permian orogenic events within the Altay Shan and Tian Shan. Deposit types are dominated by orogenic gold deposits, but signicant epithermal systems are also
present
395
PermianTriassic(?)
Uncertain
Mid-Carboniferous
Early Permian
Kanggur fault
North Tian Shan
fault system
Carboniferous
Late Permian(?)
Yamansu fault
Carboniferous
Permian(?)
Yamansu fault
Uncertain
Late Permian
Yamansu fault
5.8
70
300
50
100
4
3.05.0
4
2
1
0.16
8.09.0
3.1
20?
90
20
10
7
10
the Central Asian republics. In Kazakhstan, the Altay

Shan host the 13.4 million ounces (Moz) Au Vasilkovskoye deposit and the 8 Moz Au Bakyrchik
deposit, as well as other large Caledonian (early
Paleozoic) deposits such as Zholymbet, Stepnyak,
Aksu, and Bestyube. In Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,
the Tian Shan contain giant Variscan (late Paleozoic)
orebodies at Muruntau (170 Moz Au), Kalmakyr,
(90 Moz Au), Charmitan (>10 Moz Au), and Kumtor
(18 Moz Au), with the latter only 60 km from the
Xinjiang border (Fig. 1).
Geological setting of Xinjiang
Early Carboniferous
volcaniclastics
Early Carboniferous
volcaniclastics
Early Carboniferous
volcaniclastics
Early Permian granitoid
Mid-Carboniferous granitoid
Silurian-Early Carboniferous
granitoids
Late SilurianEarly
Devonian ne-grained clastics
and basalt
and basalt
Late Silurian slate and phyllite
Late Devonian graywacke
and siltstone
Permian
Yamansu fault
5.010
6.4
Permian(?) andesite
Deposit age
Reserve
(t Au)
Geologically
inferred resource (t Au)
Grade
(g/t Au)
Host rock
Associated
major
structure
396
Xinjiang is situated with the south-central part of the Eurasian

plate, immediately north of the Himalayan collisional zone and
Tibetan plateau. The physiography of Xinjiang is dominated by
three rugged eastwest- to northwest-trending mountain ranges
separating large intracontinental foreland basins to the present-day
IndiaAsia convergence. From north to south, these features include the Altay Shan, Junggar/Turpan basins, Tian Shan, Tarim
basin, and Kunlun Shan (Fig. 1). Elevations range from 8,611 m at
Qogir Peak on the west side of the Tarim basin and the 7,439 m
Pobedy Peak in the Tian Shan, to 154 m below sea level at Aiding
Lake in the Turpan basin.
The region consists of several independent Precambrian continental blocks that underwent a complex history of dispersion and
reconvergence to Eurasia during the Paleozoic. These include (I)
the composited Yili block (or DjezkazganKirzig unit of Sengor
and Natalin 1996, and also KazakhstanNorth Tian Shan massif
of Sokolov 1998) now exposed in the central Tian Shan; (II) the
Tarim block that forms a long-lived basin underlying much of
southern Xinjiang; and (III) parts of the Qaidam block extending
into southeastern Xinjiang beneath the Qaidam basin (Fig. 1).
Paleozoic accretionary complexes and extensional basins dene the
sutures between the various blocks. These include terranes of the
extensive Altaid orogenic system accreted onto the south side of
the Angara craton underlying eastern Russia, those added to both
the north and south sides of the Yili block, and those that collided
in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic onto the south side of the Tarim
block. Permian extensional tectonics formed deep basins within the
Altaid orogenic complex, evolving between the present-day Altay
and Tian Shan. Broad-scale deformation has eected much of
Xinjiang during the last 250 million years, with northward-directed
collisions reecting closure of the Paleo-Tethys and Neo-Tethys
Oceans, and the present collision with India.
Replacement
Orogenic(?)
Porphyry
Orogenic
Orogenic
Epithermal
Hot springs
Orogenic
Orogenic
Dadonggou
Matoutan
Xifengshan II
Tuwu
Wangfeng
Dashankou
Axi
Yiermand
Sawayaerdun
Bulong
Western
Tian Shan
Kanggurtag
Xitan
Eastern
Tian Shan
Epithermal
(high
suldation)
Replacement
Deposit
Region
Table 1. (Contd.)
Type
Tarim basin
The Tarim basin covers about one-third of the land area of
Xinjiang (Fig. 1) and is Chinas largest inland basin. The basin is
generally recognized to overly the Tarim block, one of the three
major cratonic blocks of China, as Precambrian basement is exposed along much of its periphery (Zhang et al. 1984; Coleman
1989). The most extensive exposures occur in the northeastern
Tarim basin in the Kuruktagh region (Allen et al. 1992). In addition, a massive magnetic anomaly extending for 1,000 km across
the middle of the Tarim basin at latitude 40 provides evidence of
Precambrian crystalline rocks generally under 615 km of young
sedimentary cover and a thin Paleozoic sequence. However, magnetic basement in the center of the basin, termed the central Tarim
uplift, is estimated at depths of 48 km or less. The consistent Late
Proterozoic and early Paleozoic stratigraphy from both the north
and south margins of the Tarim basin has been used as an argument that the Tarim was a single coherent cratonic block since the
Early Proterozoic (Li et al. 1996). The Tarim has been character-
397
ized by a complex multi-stage basin evolution throughout the entire
Phanerozoic (Li et al. 1996).
The oldest ages on rocks in the Tarim block of 32633046 Ma
were obtained by UPb dating of zircons from gneisses and amphibolites in the northeastern Tarim basin. Other nearby igneous
and metamorphic rocks, as well as those elsewhere around the
basin margin, have dates that span the Early Proterozoic (Li et al.
1996; Matte et al. 1996). Late Proterozoic rifting along the northern
and southern margin of the Tarim block (Gilder et al. 1991; Li et al.
1996) led to passive margin sedimentation through the Cambrian
and Ordovician. The onset of mid-Paleozoic orogenic events along
both margins of the Tarim, continuing into the Mesozoic on the
south, resulted in deposition of as much as 12 km of terrestrial
sedimentary rocks during initial formation of the Tarim basin.
Rapid Neogene to Quaternary uplift within the Tian Shan and
Kunlun Shan has been responsible for the extensive sedimentation
within the Tarim foredeep during the last 20 million years.
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan range (Fig. 2) is located to the north of the Tarim
basin with several peaks exceeding 5,000 m in elevation. The
eastern part of this >2,500-km-long mountain belt trends east
west in a 300-km-wide zone across the center of Xinjiang; it continues westward from China for another 1,000 km through
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In China, the range is often divided
into the southern and northern Tian Shan provinces, which surround a Precambrian nucleus commonly termed the Yili block or
central Tian Shan province. The Chinese Tian Shan can be considered as having formed the south-central part of the Altaid
orogenic zone, an extensive series of Paleozoic subductionaccre-
tion complexes added to the Eurasia continent between the Tarim

block and Angara (Siberia) craton (Sengor and Natalin 1996).
The southern Tian Shan province is composed of early Paleozoic passive margin sequences, which are continuous onto the
northern margin of the Tarim Precambrian block. These marine
sedimentary rocks and associated metavolcanic rocks suggest an
oceanic basin existed along that margin in Ordovician and Silurian
times (Carroll et al. 1995). The presence of mid-Silurian through
Early Carboniferous turbidite-dominant sequences indicates that
there was a shift to an active continental margin during the midPaleozoic. Associated mid-Paleozoic volcanic rocks are referred to
as part of the AqishanYamansu arc. It is possible that, during the
DevonianCarboniferous, an ocean basin was being subducted
northward ahead of the Tarim block and beneath the central Tian
Shan (Shi et al. 1994; Carroll et al. 1995). Alternatively, a southward-dipping subduction zone may have developed beneath the
northern margin of the Tarim micro-continent (Graham 1995). It is
Fig. 2. Generalized geologic map of the Tian Shan region in
central Xinjiang after Allen et al. (1992, 1993), Shi et al. (1994), and
Carroll et al. (1995). Two Paleozoic sequences of allochthonous
terranes (northern and southern Tian Shan provinces) were
amalgamated, partly around the Precambrian Yili block, during
a complex series of Devonian to Early Permian arc/terrane
collisions. Resulting orogenic (e.g. Wangfeng, Dadonggou, Yuanbaoshan, Sawayaerdun, Xifengshan, Dashankou, Bulong), replacement (Kanggurtag, Matoutan) and epithermal (e.g. Xitan, Axi)
lode gold deposits are recognized throughout the length of the
300-km-wide orogen that cuts Xinjiang, and signicant potential
exists for the discovery of additional gold resources in this orogen.
The TuwuYundong deposit is a recently discovered gold-rich
copper porphyry deposit
398
clear that, however, no matter what the polarity of the subduction,
the Tarim and Yili blocks were amalgamated in the Late DevonianEarly Carboniferous. Relatively younger dates on deformation along the western side of the suture may indicate an oblique,
diachronous collision that continued until the end of the Paleozoic
(Chen et al. 1999).
The 500-m-wide QinbulakQawabulak fault of Allen et al.
(1992; also referred to as the Nikolaev line, Central Kazakhstan
fault or the NuratauAtbashi megashear zone in the Central Asian
republics to the west) is the site of the Late DevonianEarly Carboniferous suture between the Tarim block-southern Tian Shan
province and the Yili block (Gao et al. 1998; Fig. 2). It can be
traced as far to the west as the Aral Sea (Allen et al. 1995) and is
often part of an 8-km-wide HPLT assemblage of thrust sheets
(Gao et al. 1999). The giant gold deposits of Central Asia, immediately west of Xinjiang, are all within about 100 km of the suture,
and except for Kumtor, lie within the southern Tian Shan province.
The Yili block is perhaps the easternmost part of the so-called
KazakhstanKyrgyzstan assemblage, a series of small Precambrian
fragments that may have joined together in the early Paleozoic
(Zonenshain et al. 1990). Alternatively, Shi et al. (1994) claim that
the Yili block is a fragment of the Tarim craton that rifted away in
the Early Cambrian and then re-collided with the craton later in the
Paleozoic. The block pinches out at about longitude 89 and the
suture to the east of this point is directly between the northern and
southern Tian Shan provinces. (We refer to the area in central
Xinjiang east of this longitude as the eastern Tian Shan and that to
the west as the western Tian Shan within later sections of this
paper.) Migmatitic basement in one area within the Xinjiang part
of the Yili block has been dated at 14001300 Ma (Allen et al.
1992). Ultramac rocks, interpreted by some workers as ophiolites,
follow the suture and may have been emplaced during obduction
associated with Yili-Tarim block collision. CarboniferousEarly
Permian carbonate platform facies cover rocks exposed along the
suture suggest a late Paleozoic extensional basin formed subsequent
to collision (Carroll et al. 1995; Sokolov 1998).
The North Tian Shan fault represents a Late Carboniferous
Early Permian suture, where rocks of what are now the northern
Tian Shan province were subducted below and accreted onto the
Yili block (Allen et al. 1993; Gao et al. 1998). The accreted rocks to
the north of the fault are mainly Devonian to mid-Carboniferous
calc-alkaline volcanic rocks and ysch (the Bogda/Turpan terrane
of Coleman 1989 or the Kanggur and Bogda arcs of Pirajno et al.
1997), which were separated from the Yili microcontinent by the
North Tian Shan sea (Carroll et al. 1995). To the east, where the
Yili block is pinched out, south of the Turpan basin, the North
Tian Shan (or Kanggur) fault separates the northern and southern
Tian Shan provinces. As in the southern Tian Shan province, ultramac rocks along the north side of this suture zone are hypothesized to represent obducted oceanic crust. Simultaneously,
and to the north of the accreting arcs, the Turkestan (or Junggar)
Ocean closed between these arcs that had been added to the Yili
block and the more northerly terranes of the Altaid assemblage
that had been simultaneously accreting to the Angara craton
(Carroll et al. 1990).
Variscan calc-alkaline granite and granodiorite bodies, spread
in age between 400250 Ma, now outcrop over much of the Yili
block (Hopson et al. 1989; Allen et al. 1992). They reect a huge
and still poorly understood magmatic arc derived from orogenic
events on both sides of the Yili block. Within the central Tian
Shan along the southern margin of Kazakhstan, on the north side
of Issyk-Kul Lake and about 150 km north of the Xinjiang
border, the 100 km2 Talgarskii complex was intruded at 365
349 Ma. This complex consists of riebeckite and hastingsite
granites, and alkaline leucogranites (Kogarko et al. 1994). If the
absolute dates are correct, they indicate a region of local extension during the Late DevonianEarly Carboniferous collisional
event. Subsequent to the amalgamation of the Tian Shan belt,
Late Permian through Early Triassic extension in both fore-arc
regions (perhaps really a back-arc extension beneath the Tarim
during the latter southerly subduction) appear to be marked by
alkaline magmatism within both the southern and northern Tian
Fig. 3. Generalized geologic map of the Altay Shan region in

northernmost Xinjiang showing the location of the most important
lode and placer gold deposits. Northwest-trending regional fault
systems, mainly separating a complex system of latest Proterozoic
to Carboniferous marine sedimentary and volcanic rock-dominated
accreted terranes of the Altaid orogen, provide a rst-order control
on localization of the lode deposits. Generalized after Chen et al.
(1985)
Shan. Many of these are a part of Colemans (1989) A-type
granites of central Asia, a group that obviously also erroneously
lumps in much of the subduction-related magmatism. Coleman
(1989) argues that isotopic data from these alkaline rocks indicate
no Precambrian basement and magma generation from underplated oceanic crust.
Altay Shan
The Altay Shan form the remote northern border of Xinjiang,
separating China from Kazakhstan on the northwest, Russia on
the north, and Mongolia along the northeast (Fig. 3). Highest
elevations include 4,374 m Youyifeng Mt., forming a boundary
point between ChinaRussiaMongolia, and 4,362 m Menghehaihan Mt., which is located about 100 km east of Qinghe in adjacent
Mongolia. These mountains in China consist of mainly latest
Proterozoic through Carboniferous turbidites with lesser cherts,
basalts, and gabbros. Many of these latter igneous rocks occur as
pieces of dismembered ophiolites emplaced within mid-Paleozoic
metasedimentary rocks, commonly in association with blueschist
facies metamorphism. The sedimentary-rock dominant sequences
represent a massive series of Altaid accretionary complexes (or
terranes in some terminology) added to the Angara craton
throughout the Paleozoic (Sengor et al. 1993). The ages of the
sedimentary rocks generally get younger to the southwest, reecting the outward growth of the so-called Altay/Sayan orogen,
although Carboniferous and Permian strike-slip events have
translated some sequences of older rocks outboard of more
recently accreted sequences (Sengor et al. 1993). The major Irtysh
shear zone (Fig. 3) separates, what have been termed, the northern
Gorny Altay unit from the southern Kalba Narym sector of the
Surgut unit (Sengor et al. 1993; Allen et al. 1995). The southern
margin of the Surgut unit, dened by the Gornostaev (or Aermantai) shear zone, is mainly unexposed because it is overlain by
Permian and younger rocks of the Junggar basin. These units
are possibly similar to the superterrane terminology commonly
used in Cordilleran tectonics; that is, large allochthonous blocks
with some amalgamation of dierent lithostratigraphic units prior
to accretion.
As with the Tian Shan, Variscan magmatism is also widespread
throughout the Altay Shan. In northern China, such arc magmatism is found throughout the Altay Shan, but seems most voluminous along the China/Mongolia border within the older
Paleozoic terranes. Most of the calc-alkaline magmatism is probably the result of Early Carboniferous oblique subduction. Late
Carboniferous to Early Permian post-orogenic right lateral displacement along many terrane sutures, such as the Irtysh and
Gornostaev faults, followed by a latest Paleozoic reversal of shear
sense, have complicated recognition of the original continental
margin (Sengor et al. 1993). Magmatism mainly changed to more
alkaline in composition during these transtensional events. Variscan alkaline magmatism north of the Irtysh fault is known for its
association with some of the worlds largest pegmatite-type rare
metal (Li, Be, Nb, Ta, Y, Rb, Cs, Zr, and Hf) deposits, some of
which contain gem-grade beryl, within the 450-km-long Talitsky
Mongolian Altai belt (Kremenetsky 1996). The magmatic ores
continue along a northwest trend across adjacent eastern
Kazakhstan, where they dene the KalbaNarym metallogenic
zone (Malchenko and Ermolov 1996). Regional metamorphic
grade is reported to show a transition from greenschist in the
southeastern Altay to amphibolite and higher grade facies in the
399
400
northwest (Yang et al. 1992), although some of this could reect a
broader contact metamorphism associated with the abundance of
magmatism in the northwest. These metamorphosed rocks are
overlain by unmetamorphosed Permian strata and give whole rock
radiogenic dates of 308267 Ma (Yang et al. 1992), indicative of a
cessation of tectonothermal events by late Early Permian.
Permian basins
A series of large basins, the Alakol, Junggar, and Turpan basins,
extend across northern Xinjiang (and western Kazakhstan) between the Tian Shan and Altay Shan (Fig. 1). The commonly oilbearing Permian to Cenozoic basinal strata are as thick as 15 km
along the southern margin of the Junggar basin (Clayton et al.
1997). The basement to these basins is still debatable (Gao et al.
1998), but many workers now indicate that it likely consists of
Paleozoic accretionary complexes and magmatic arcs similar to
those of the southern Altay Shan and northern Tian Shan (Allen
et al. 1995; Allen and Vincent 1997). The basins are widely viewed
as Late Permian to perhaps Early Triassic extensional features
(Allen et al. 1995), although it has also been argued that they did
not form until the Jurassic (Hendrix et al. 1992). A Late Permian
origin would temporally overlap with regional sinistral shear motion of the Eastern European craton relative to the Angara craton,
and the onset of a brief Late Paleozoic episode of alkalic magmatism throughout the northern part of central Asia. The Permian
and younger cover rocks overlie the zone marking Late Carboniferous closure of the Turkestan Ocean and the suturing between the
two subduction zones of opposite polarity.
Southern Xinjiang
The geologic history along the southern side of the Tarim block is
fairly well understood to the west, but Cenozoic strike-slip events
and presence of the Qaidam block and associated accretionary
prisms make for a very dicult understanding of the regional geology of southeasternmost Xinjiang. The southern boundary of the
Tarim block is recognized by the Kudi suture in the southwest,
which is also referred to as the Kunlun or Tamkaral fault (Fig. 4).
The fault zone separates the 2261 Ma metamorphic rocks of the
Tarim block from the 1760 Ma metamorphic rocks of the Kunlun
terrane. It formed during the Silurian as the Tarim block was underthrust beneath the Kunlun terrane. Syn- to post-collisional
Caledonian calc-alkaline magmatism occurred along both sides of
the fault and is dated between about 460 and 380 Ma (Dewey et al.
1988; Matte et al. 1996). Cenozoic strike-slip along the major and
reactivated crustal-scale Altyn TaghKarakash fault system has
displaced part of the Archean and Proterozoic Kunlun terrane and
adjoining rocks of the southern Tarim block, along with the Caledonian arc, hundreds of kilometers to the east to form the East
Kunlun Shan of southeastern Xinjiang (Zhou and Graham 1996).
The Qaidam basin along the northern side of the East Kunlun
Shan, often termed the Qaidam block, is most probably a piece of
the Tarim block that was oset by the Cenozoic IndiaAsia collision.
To the south of the Tarim basin, Paleo-Tethyan oceanic crust
was thrust northwards underneath the amalgamated TarimQaidam block and Kunlun terrane. This led to the successive accretion
of the Tianshuihai and Qiangtang terranes (or northern Tibet
block) in the Late TriassicEarly Jurassic, Lhasa terrane in the Late
Jurassic, the KohistanDras arc in the Late Cretaceous, and India
by the early Tertiary. Only the former of these Tethysides accretionary complexes (see Sengor and Natalin 1996) lies within
Xinjiang. The greenschist facies Permo-Triassic ysch of the
Tianshuihai terrane was subducted below and accreted to the
southern margin of the Kunlun block along the Altyn Tagh fault
zone (Matte et al. 1996), a structure marking the northern
boundary of the Tibetan plateau (Fig. 4). The crustal-scale suture
now is located along some of the high peaks of the Kunlun Range
that rise above the Tibetan plateau and, in the Cenozoic, has been
reactivated as a major sinistral strike-slip system. Anatectic granites

are scattered along both sides of the suture and their absolute dates
range between 210 and 180 Ma (Matte et al. 1996). By about
180 Ma, unmetamorphosed Carboniferous to Permian Tethyan
rocks of the Qiangtang terrane, the southernmost rocks exposed in
Xinjiang, collided with the southern margin of the Tianshuihai
terrane along what is now the GozhaLongmu Co fault zone
(Matte et al. 1996).
In the southeastern corner of the Xinjiang province, a few additional signicant tectonic units surround the oset East Kunlun
Shan/Qaidam basin (Fig. 4). The Altyn Tagh Shan are located on
the north side of the Qaidam block and along the southeastern
corner of the Tarim basin. Paleozoic ysch and island arc rocks
indicate that the Altyn Tagh Shan were originally part of the Tian
ShanBei ShanQilian Shan Paleozoic orogenic belt that cuts
across much of central China (Zhou and Dean 1996). Right lateral
oset along the northeastern extension of the Altyn TaghKarakash fault system has displaced a part of the belt. The Songpan
Ganzi terrane, south of the East Kunlun Shan/Qaidam block, is an
early Mesozoic ysch sequence that denes a large sea trapped
between the colliding cratonic blocks of China (Sengor et al. 1993).
It may continue to the west as rocks dened as those of the
Tianshuihai terrane and, if so, then if forms the entire backstop for
accretion of the Qiangtang terrane.
Gold deposits of the Altay Shan

Most gold deposits discovered to date in Xinjiang are in
the accreted terranes of the Altay Shan, associated with
a complex series of northeasterly-dipping thrust sheets.
Both granitoids and gold deposits in the Altay Shan are
ultimately associated with collisional orogenesis along
the southern side of the Angara craton, which underlies
the countries to the north. Dong (2000) suggests that the
orogenic gold deposits and prospects of the Altay Shan
cluster into eight belts, which are localized by the main
NW-trending ductile fault zones and lower-order cross
structures. Our observations favor a more irregular
pattern for the larger deposits (Fig. 3), although the
spatial association with these faults is generally wellsupported. The below descriptions are based upon the
existing literature, extensive eld work in Xinjiang by
the lead author, and eld visits by two authors (R.G.
and F.P.) to some of the deposits.
Northern Altay Shan

The lesser mineralized northern Altay area consists of a
basement of Precambrian schists and then Late Proterozoic to Ordovician accretionary sequences, locally
overlain by rift-related, mid-Paleozoic volcanic and negrained clastic basinal rocks. These rocks make up much
of the high elevations of the Altay Shan. A zone of highangle faults that cuts through the area, collectively
known as the Gorny Altay unit (Sengor et al. 1993),
trends WNW and includes the TuergenHongshanzui
fault zone (Fig. 3). Extensive uplift has exposed basement rocks and roots of the Late Devonian to Permian
HalongQinghe (or QingheAltay) magmatic arc. The
arc is poorly understood, with a wide range of Paleozoic
401
absolute dates (Wang et al. 1993), but the dominant

calc-alkaline granitoids typically appear to young from
the northwest to the southeast, although many are
probably Early Carboniferous in age.
Lode ores in the northern Altay have historically
been mined in neighboring Kazakhstan, including the
8 Moz Bakyrchik orogenic gold deposit hosted by midCarboniferous metasedimentary rocks (Sokolov 1998).
Most of the northernmost Altay gold resources in adjacent Xinjiang are in placer accumulations of the
Nuoerte region (e.g. Ayousai, Hongdun, Laojinggou,
Xinjinggou, and Akelsala), occurring within the steep
and remote parts of the mountain range. These placers
occur along many of the streams draining the south side
of the HalongQinghe arc, which eventually ow into
the large Irtysh River. Their presence suggests signicant
lode gold potential within the large, mainly Early Carboniferous, calc-alkaline intrusive complex. Recently,
also a few orogenic gold deposits have been discovered
hosted in metasedimentary rocks of the northern Altay
Shan region, although no large lodes have yet been
Fig. 4. Geological and tectonic features of the Kunlun Shan,
southern Xinjiang (modied after Yin et al. 1998). The region is
dened by the northernmost terranes accreted to the Tarim craton
in early Mesozoic, prior to Cenozoic IndiaAsia collision and
resulting continent-scale strike-slip motion. Poorly documented,
but widespread orogenic gold deposits and resulting placers occur
along much of the length of the northern Tibet block, having
formed as terranes of this block were deformed against the Tarim
blockQaidam blockKunlun terrane Triassic continental margin
backstop
found that are clearly spatially associated with the

granitoids.
The most signicant of the northern Altay orogenic
gold deposits are those of a remote and relatively unstudied gold belt, which stretches for 200 km along a
part of the 500-km-long, NW-trending and near-vertical
TuergenHongshanzui fault. The fault generally separates what have been mapped as Early Devonian sedimentary and volcanic basinal rocks to the north from
Proterozoic and early Paleozoic accretionary complexes
to the south. It is implied by OHara et al. (1997) that
some of the vein host rocks are metamorphosed to
amphibolite and higher grades. The fact that the older
rocks are located outward (relative to the Angara
craton) of the younger units reects the complex late
Paleozoic strike-slip events along older suture zones in
the Altay belt, as described by Sengor et al. (1993).
Typically, 3- to 10-km-wide mineralized zones are
localized where NNW- or NE-trending faults intersect
the more regional TuergenHongshanzui system. Many
of these are the probable sources for above described
placer deposits. Among the larger deposits, the Aketishikan deposit (10 t Au resource) is hosted in the basinal
strata, whereas the Hongshanzui deposit is hosted by
older greenschist facies metasedimentary rocks of the
Neoproterozoic to Ordovician Habahe Formation. Gold
at the Aketishikan deposit occurs as inclusions within
pyrite and arsenopyrite grains within suldized sedimentary and volcanic rocks. At the Hongshanzui
deposit, which lacks a reported gold resource, mineralization occurs along a NW-tending, ductilebrittle shear.
402
The gold, commonly located within sulde grains, occurs in quartz veins and breccias, in stockwork networks, and is disseminated in wall rock. In the vicinity of
the Laojinggou placers, poorly-documented quartz
veins, stockworks, and breccias are reported to occur in
zones as long as 3 km and as wide as 1 km that cut
granitoids of the HalongQinghe arc (Tan et al. 1994;
Liu et al. 1996). There are no reliable age data for any of
the gold occurrences, which probably formed sometime
during Paleozoic deformation, perhaps around the time
of the Early Carboniferous calc-alkaline magmatism or
during slightly later strike-slip. The fact that the ores are
not found in the unmetamorphosed Late Permian rocks
suggests veining is older than about 260 Ma.
The possibility that some of the gold deposits in the
northern Altay Shan are older, perhaps early to midPaleozoic in age, also can not be discounted. The
abundance of gold occurrences continues to the northeast across the border into the Mongolian Altai. These
AuSbW prospects are concentrated within a few tens
of kilometers of the China border and show a strong
spatial association with Caledonian granite and granodiorite (Kempe and Belyatsky 2000). Hence, orogenic
gold deposits in the Altay Shan may range in age over
much of the Paleozoic, with such ages progressively
younging to the southwest and, thus, correlative with
outward growth of the orogen.
Southern Altay Shan
The NW-striking, NE-dipping Irtysh fault zone (Fig. 3)
separates the Gorny Altay and Surgut units, both Paleozoic accretionary wedges, within the lower elevations
of the southern Altay region. Much of the fault zone is
marked by the northwesterly-owing Irtysh River and
an extensive belt of ultramac bodies. In places, mylonitic zones reach 3 km in width (Sengor et al. 1993).
Ductile deformation along the fault zone ceased by ca.
270 Ma (Travin et al. 1998). Orogenic gold, gold-bearing magmatic NiCu deposits and gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulde (VMS) type deposits occur in the
area, with the former being the most widespread.
The orogenic lode gold deposits are mainly distributed along the length of the Irtysh fault zone (Fig. 3),
likely indicating an important rst-order control for
hydrothermal uid migration. Most of the important
deposits occur on second-order faults within about 5
10 km of the main fault strand. Those deposits to the
northwest along the structure, including Duolanasayi,
Saidu, Taerde, and Kabenbulake, cut felsic to intermediate granitoids, ysch, and volcaniclastic rocks. The
largest of these, Duolanasayi (Fig. 5), is actually made
up of a number of mineralized bodies that occur along a
20-km-long by 10-km-wide zone between the Maerkakuli and Habahe second-order faults near the Kazakhstan
border. The lodes cut Middle Devonian graywacke,
phyllite, and carbonate near hornfels associated with a
series of ca. 290 Ma tonalites (Li et al. 1998). In places,
granodiorite and plagiogranite dikes, some of which cut

and are, thus, younger than the tonalite, occur as the
footwall or hanging wall to orebodies. Both the veins
and older parallel dikes are localized along the limestone/clastic rock contacts (Fig. 5). The gold occurs
both in quartz veins and disseminated within adjacent
igneous and metasedimentary country rocks. In addition
to a typical orogenic gold quartzpyritesericite
carbonatechlorite alteration assemblage, skarn-like
calc-silicate phases occasionally occur where lodes cut
limestones. Li et al. (1998) report a series of RbSr dates
on uid inclusion waters from quartz veins at the
Duonalasayi and Saidu deposits of between 269 and
305 Ma. Although the meaning of such data may be
questionable, it does hint at a late Paleozoic ore-forming
episode in the southern Altaids that is coeval with regional right-lateral shearing events. This is further supported by three KAr dates of ca. 317295 Ma from the
Saidu deposit (Cheng and Rui 1997).
In the same area, along the Irtysh fault zone and only
a few tens of kilometers from the Kazakhstan border, a
number of small VMS deposits are hosted in the Early to
Middle Devonian Ashele Formation (Wang et al. 1998;
Wang 1999) of the Gorny Altay unit. The FeCuZnbearing suldes occur as laminations, massive bodies,
and stockwork systems between the bimodal, submarine
footwall spilitic rocks and hanging wall quartzkeratophyric tu. The approximately 1 million tonne resource
at the Ashele deposit (Fig. 3) grades about 2% combined Cu + Zn, along with signicant precious metal
grades of 55 g/t Ag and 1 g/t Au. Locally, higher precious metal grades correlate with areas of black ore,
composed of massive galenasphaleritechalcopyrite
barite (Wang 1999). As with many of the orogenic gold
deposits in the Altay Shan, published absolute dates for
mineralization are quite variable, ranging from about
373 to 255 Ma (Li et al. 1998). A cluster of SmNd and
RbSr dates on volcanic rocks and massive sulde ores
cluster near 360 Ma and are interpreted as the most
probable age for seaoor hydrothermal activity. This is
relatively close in time to the widely accepted Early to
Middle Devonian lithostratigraphy reported for the
Ashele Formation.
Although the present gold resource at the Ashele
deposit is only about 30,000 oz, the Devonian rocks
north of the Irtysh fault present a favorable target for
future discovery of large gold-bearing VMS deposits.
The belt of precious metal-bearing FeCuZn deposits
continues to the northwest into adjacent Kazakhstan,
where it includes the Nikolaevskoe, Belousovskoe,
Chekmar, and Snegirikhinskoe deposits (Malchenko
and Ermolov 1996). Deposits of FeCuAu also continue to the southeast for more than 300 km from the
Ashele deposit, where the Qiaoxiahala deposit occurs
within an ophiolite sequence along the northern side of
the Irtysh fault zone. Gold enrichments are recognized
in chalcopyrite and bornite within massive magnetite
beds within the Middle Devonian Beitashan Formation
(Wang et al. 1999). The presence, however, of a
403
Fig. 5a, b. Geology of the
Duolanasayi orogenic gold deposit, southern Altay Shan.
a Regional geology surrounding
the Duolanasayi gold deposit.
The deposit occurs in Middle
Devonian clastic rocks, and
along their contacts with limestone units, within a few hundred meters of hornfels
associated with 290 Ma tonalites. b Detailed geology of the
main orebodies at the Duolanasayi deposit showing association of gold ores with clasticcarbonate rocks contacts
dominantly oxidized hypogene iron phase in a Phanerozoic age deposit and adjacent skarn mineralogy
suggest that the Qiaoxiahala deposit might rather be a
magmatic gold system, rather than a part of the belt of
VMS occurrences.
Along the southern side of the southeastern part of
the Irtysh fault zone, the Akexike, Shaerbulake, and
Kelasayi orogenic gold deposits occur within Early
Carboniferous ysch and mac to intermediate volcanic
rocks of the Surgut unit. Mineralization styles are similar to those farther northwest along the structure, and
include veins, breccias, and disseminated ores. At Shaerbulake, the orebodies are hosted by the ysch, whereas
at the Akexike deposit they mainly occur along basalt/
tu contacts. In both cases, ductile shearing within anticlinal structures is suggestive of saddle reef zones,
which are well-known common hosts for orogenic gold
deposits in areas such as the Victorian goldelds of
southeastern Australia and the Meguma terrane of
eastern Canada. There are no large granitoids in this
part of the Surgut unit, although dikes of various compositions are widespread. A 292.17.3 Ma RbSr date
on a felsic dike at the Shaerbulake deposit overlaps a

PbPb date from there on arsenopyrite of
304.17.4 Ma, which is assumed to be the age of gold
deposition (Li et al. 1998).
A few orogenic gold deposits in the Surgut unit occur
50100 km west of Wulonggu Lake to the north of a
large fault zone (Manrak fault of Allen et al. 1995),
which might be a part of the westerly continuation of the
complex Aermantai fault system (Fig. 3). Known as the
Sawuer district, the deposits are associated with a small
area of Devonian and Carboniferous ysch, surrounded
by extensive areas of Permian and younger strata. Most
of the deposits are described as occurring within the
Early Carboniferous Heishantou Formation. The ores
show a spatial association to many of the small Variscan
granitoids that are described as both calc-alkaline and
alkaline, and RbSr dates on these rocks range between
329 and 314 Ma (He et al. 1994). Quartz veins at the
Tasite deposit, discovered more than 50 years ago and
recently having produced about 15,000 oz Au, are
hosted in brittle fault zones near the margins of a
sheared, K-feldspar-rich granite. In contrast, at the
404
Buerkesidai deposit, gold-bearing stockworks occur

both in carbonaceous ysch and intermediate to mac
porphyritic dikes.
Potential nickelcoppercobalt resources, grading
0.74% Ni and 0.3% Cu and with precious metal enrichments, occur at the Kelatongke deposit, about
100 km west of Qinghe (Fig. 3). Early Carboniferous
metasedimentary rocks are intruded by a NW-trending
belt of Late Carboniferous macultramac complexes
(Li et al. 1998) that parallel the nearby Irtysh fault. The
magmatic Ni- and Cu-bearing sulde minerals occur
disseminated in biotitehornblende olivine norite in
the lower parts of the complexes. Sulde-rich zones also
average 7.6 g/t Ag and 0.15 g/t Au. These gabbroicdominant igneous complexes apparently continue into
adjacent Kazakhstan, where they include the Auand PGE-enriched Checkek deposit (Malchenko and
Ermolov 1996).
Gold deposits of the western Junggar area

The western Junggar area is characterized by mainly
Devonian to Early Carboniferous metasedimentary
rocks, oceanic basalts, often emplaced in ophiolitic sequences, and some melange (Shen et al. 1996). The area
(Fig. 6) is exposed above the Permian Junggar basin
to the east and Alakol basin, in adjacent Kazakhstan, to
the west. Although rock types and ages are similar to
those of the northern Altaids, lithologies and major fault
zones trend NESW across the western Junggar area
and are almost orthogonal to those of the Altaids. This
is likely the consequence of counterclockwise rotation of
part of the vast Altaid accretionary complex during leftlateral, strike-slip events and basin formation in the Late
Permian (Allen et al. 1995). Limited geochronology,
discussed below, suggests that this tectonism roughly
correlates with the time of lode gold formation. It also is
the approximate time of change in northern Xinjiang
from calc-alkaline to alkaline magmatism. Jin and
Zhang (1993), using a variety of dating methods, described a group of 322305 Ma I-type granodiorites and
one of 281245 Ma S-type syenites and alkali granites
that seem to overlap the transitional period within the
western Junggar region.
More than 300 gold deposits and occurrences are
recognized in the western Junggar area (Shen et al.
1996), with the most signicant of these along the
northern side of the NE-trending Dalabute fault zone
(Fig. 6) and a total resource of at least 2.5 Moz Au.
Unknown amounts of gold have been mined from orogenic gold vein deposits since the Ming Dynasty of the
middle 1300s and extensive amounts of placer mining
occurred during the Ching dynasty in the early 1800s in
the Hatu district. Many of the historic and present-day
lode deposits are clustered in a 70-km-long by 20-kmwide corridor, between the Dalabute and more northerly
Anqi and Hatu rst-order faults, and extending from
the Hatu (Qiqiu #1 and #2 deposits) to Saertuohai
districts (Fig. 7). The regional structures are thought to

have formed in the Early Carboniferous as NW-trending
thrust zones (Allen and Vincent 1997), parallel to the
Irtysh and other major faults, within the outwardlygrowing Altaid accretionary prism (Fig. 3). The Early
Carboniferous lower greenschist facies rocks that host
ore in the districts north of the Dalabute fault are part of
the Tailegula Formation (Shen et al. 1996; Fan et al.
1998), a series of coeval intercalated metasedimentary
and metavolcanic lithologies within part of the late Paleozoic accreted margin. Steeply-dipping, gold-bearing
veins and adjacent auriferous alteration halos occur
along subsidiary faults to the two main faults, and these
strike both northeast and in a more discordant NS
direction (Shen et al. 1996).
The more important orebodies of the Hatu district,
forming the 1 Moz Au Qiqiu #1 deposit, are located
along the northern side of the Anqi shear zone, within a
ca. 330 Ma tholeiitic basalt. The complex osetting of
many of the orebodies, including 7 km of post-Permian
strike-slip between the smaller metasedimentary rockhosted Qiqiu #2 deposit and the Qiqiu #1 deposit
(Fig. 7), indicates a signicant amount of post-ore deformation (Shen et al. 1996). The large Akebasitao
batholith, an alkalic complex with contradictory UPb
ages of 256 Ma (Jin and Zhang 1993) and RbSr dates
of 298285 Ma (Li et al. 1998), is located about 6 km
southwest of the district. In addition, mac and granite
porphyry dikes are widespread within the Hatu gold
district, and it is uncertain as to whether these are essentially coeval with the alkalic complex and/or are part
of the earlier (ca. 320300 Ma) Variscan calc-alkaline
episode of magmatism. Two such large, older calcalkaline bodies, of granodiorite and quartz diorite
composition, occur immediately north of the Hatu fault.
We interpret the occurrences in the Hatu district to
clearly be structurally controlled orogenic gold deposits
(e.g. Groves et al. 1998), although some workers have
described these as volcanic-related epithermal gold deposits (e.g. Shen et al. 1996; Buckman 2001). Individual
quartz veins are generally 100 m along strike and 0.5
5 m in width, but, locally, are as large as 380 m by 20 m.
In the Qiqiu #1 deposit, the large gold resource is hosted
in 27 quartz veins and altered metabasalt host rocks,
with grades ranging between 5 and 10 g/t Au, although
local pockets of much higher grade are common, typically with abundant visible gold. Gold grains in the veins
in the hanging wall of the Anqi fault are variable in size,
but may occur as particles more than 1 mm in diameter
within the quartz. The deposit has been mined from the
1,434-m level down to the 934-m level, with recovery of
about 10,00015,000 oz/t Au per year and about
250,000 oz mined to date. Gold:silver ratios are typically
21:1, and As, Cu, Sb, and W enrichments are common
for most ore zones (Fan et al. 1998). Pyrite and lesser
arsenopyrite are the dominant sulde minerals within
and adjacent to the veins, with carbonate, sericite, and
chlorite also common in altered wall rocks. The lower
grade (45 g/t Au) Qiqiu #2 deposit is not being mined
Fig. 6. Generalized geologic map of the western Junggar area showing the location of the most important lode gold deposits, which are concentrated in the HatuSaertuohai belt. The
area and structures within it have likely been rotated counterclockwise from positions originally within the Altay Shan. Generalized after Chen et al. (1985)
405
406
Fig. 7. Detailed geology of the
HatuSaertuohai gold belt in
western Junggar. Orogenic gold
deposits, known since the
1300s, are spatially associated
with the HatuDalabute fault
systems. Geology generalized
from Shen et al. (1996), Allen
and Vincent (1997), Chen
(1997), Fan et al. (1998), and
Pirajno (unpublished eld
notes)
and the carbonaceous, volcaniclastic metasedimentary

rock-hosted ores contain a total resource of 150,000 oz
Au in the footwall of the Anqi fault. Rubidiumstrontium dates on unspecied material from two quartz veins
in the Hatu district are 290288 Ma, suggesting that
veining was slightly younger than adjacent calc-alkaline
magmatism and perhaps simultaneous with the more
alkalic episode.
A few dierences characterize some of the other gold
deposits in the western Junngar area, although it is likely
that all ores are part of a single, generally coeval hydrothermal episode. Many of the gold occurrences in the
Saertuohai district (Fig. 7), about 60 km northeast of
the Hatu district, occur in shears within NE- to NNEstriking macultramac ophiolitic slivers along the
north side of the Dalabute fault. This reects a chemically favorable trap for veining adjacent to a major rstorder structure and provides for a gold-forming scenario
very similar to that in the California Mother Lode dis-
tricts (Bohlke 1989). A talcmagnesitequartz alteration

assemblage characterizes altered wall rocks within the
Saertuohai district, with vein sulde phases dominated
by pyrite chalcopyrite.
In the Baogutu district, to the south of the Dalabute
fault and 40 km southwest of Kelamayi (Fig. 5), tuaceous conglomerate of the mid-Carboniferous Baogutu
Group hosts gold ores within a few kilometers of a series
of small ca. 320300 Ma hypabyssal granodiorite stocks
(Shen et al. 1996). Many veins cut hornfels zones surrounding the stocks, where relatively competent rocks
were preferentially hydrofractured during uid ow
events. The veins are characterized by common pyrite,
arsenopyrite, and stibnite/berthierite. The occasional
presence of native bismuth and native antimony is atypical of orogenic type gold deposits, perhaps being indicative of an overprinting low-temperature post-ore event.
The common occurrence of scoradite in many of the
mineralized outcrops is consistent with supergene events.
407
Gold deposits of the eastern Junggar area

The eastern Junggar area (Fig. 8) is underlain by the
easternmost exposures of the Late Devonian to Late
Carboniferous volcanic arc and volcanogenic deep marine sedimentary rocks that also characterized much of
the Altay Shan. Similar age rocks occur on both sides of
the WNW-trending, N-dipping, 10- to 20-km-wide,
Kelameili fault zone. The zone separates the so-called
Surgut unit to the north and JunggaroBalkhagh unit to
the south (Sengor et al. 1993). The fault itself probably
originally represented a thrusted suture between dierent
Paleozoic blocks of the Altaid sequence, brought together during the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian
Fig. 8. Generalized geology and location of main lode gold
deposits in the eastern Junggar area. Widespread Variscan
granitoids and ophiolites along the main faults are not shown.
Generalized from Chen et al. (1985), Allen et al. (1993), and Wang
et al. (2001)
closure of the Junggar Ocean (Carroll et al. 1995). Synto post-kinematic, felsic to intermediate granitoids are
scattered on both sides of the fault, and chromite-bearing ultramac bodies occur along the fault zone. These
bodies generally are poorly studied, although a variety of
granitoids are characterized by KAr and RbSr dates
ranging between about 360 and 230 Ma (Chen 1997).
Sinistral shear movement was dominant along the fault
in the Late Permian, with associated extension leading to
formation of the Junggar and Turpan basins.
Many small lode gold deposits, and a few placer gold
deposits, stretch along mainly the northeastern side of
the Kelameili fault for about 400 km (Fig. 8). Most of
these are small (<10,000 oz Au) orogenic gold vein
deposits that are being worked by local farmers. They
occur within second-order faults adjacent to the main
Kelameili fault zone. The most important of these include the Qingshui (part of the QingshuiKushui gold
belt), Nanmingshui, Jinshan, and Adake deposits, and
they all are hosted in the metasedimentary rocks.
408
Whereas none of these deposits have been dated, it is

almost certain that they are of late Paleozoic age, being
formed at about the same time as the larger gold deposits to the northwest in the Altay Shan.
In the relative shallowly-exposed Early Carboniferous andesite of the Batamayineishan Formation, about
60 km southwest of the fault zone and along the
northern side of the Bogda Shan, approximately
150,000 oz Au are recognized at the Jinshangou deposit.
In contrast to the deposits near the fault zone, Jinshangou is a typical epithermal gold deposit located
within a group of ve calderas distributed along the
intersection of two regional fault systems. Common
gangue phases include alunite, kaolinite, barite, and
uorite, all typical of epithermal ores, as well as the
more universally common quartz, albite, sericite, and
calcite.
In the same formation, near the Mongolian border
and 60 km northeast of the Kelameili fault zone, the
DanjiadiSuangfengshan (or Twin Peaks) goldsilver
prospect (Fig. 8) comprises 12 mineralized bodies
associated with felsic to intermediate volcanic and subvolcanic bodies. They are again hosted by calderarelated structures, are enriched in mercury and copper,
and locally contain as much as 125 g/t Ag. The deposit,
presently being mined, is associated with Carboniferous
andesite and rhyolite near a contact with Permian basin
ll and along the margin of the Turpan basin. The lowsuldation deposit is associated with volcanic dome
features and it also is characterized by widespread
auriferous breccias (Wang et al. 2001).
Paleo-Tianshan Ocean, until the end of the Carboniferous, which was followed by a translational regime along
rst-order faults in the Permian. Alternatively, this may
simply be the consequences of oblique TarimYili collision throughout the late Paleozoic (Chen et al. 1999).
Either way, the deposits in the Kanggurtag gold belt
might be located along second-order faults representing
dilational zones that were opened between the eastwesttrending, crustal scale North Tian Shan fault and
Kuluketag (also called the Middle Tian Shan,
Shaquanzi, or South Kushui) fault. The latter is located
about 75 km to the south of the former, and separates
clastic units from volcanic units within the southern
Tian Shan province, which suggests it too is a likely
terrane boundary. To the north of the North Tian Shan
fault, the recently discovered Tuwu and Yandong porphyry copper deposits also contain a signicant gold
resource.
Despite signicant gold resources in the Tian Shan to
the west of Xinjiang, numerous gold systems have not
yet been recognized in the western Tian Shan of Xinjiang
itself. The few important deposits discovered to date
include Wangfeng and Axi in the Yili block, and
Sawayaerdun in the southern Tian Shan province; no
important deposits are recognized in the northern Tian
Shan province. Although characterized by exceptional
relief, the arid conditions in especially the eastern Tian
Shan have hindered formation of major placer gold
deposits. Only a few small placer deposits are located in
high altitude streams near Wangfeng (e.g. Hongkeng,
Tiangeer, and Houxia).
Gold deposits of the Tian Shan

Eastern Tian Shan
Most gold deposits recognized in the Tian Shan (Fig. 2)
occur within the eastern Tian Shan (e.g. Xitan, Kanggurtag, Yuanbaoshan, Dadonggou, and Xifengshan II),
located to the south of the Turpan basin and in an arid
barren range termed the Chol Tagh, and have been
suggested to continue to the east into the Jinwozi
Mazhuangshan gold district of adjacent Gansu province. This eastwest-trending Kanggurtag gold belt
(Fig. 9), with epithermal deposits and replacement style
deposits, both probably of magmatic anities and Early
Permian age, is located south of the North Tian Shan
fault (also called Kanggur or TuokexunGuozigou fault
in places) within rocks of the AqishanYamansu arc.
The arc consists of volcanic rocks of the Early Carboniferous Aqishan and Yamansu Formations, and graywackes of the mid-Carboniferous Kushui Formation,
which are separated by the generally poorly-dened
Yamansu (or Kushui) fault (existing data are too
contradictory to distinguish these three units on Fig. 9).
The North Tian Shan fault separates this arc from those
of the Kanggur arc to the north, and represents a Late
Carboniferous to Early Permian suture (Ji et al. 1994).
Ma et al. (1997) indicate thrusting within the arc
sequence, during subduction from the north of the
Epithermal gold deposits

The Xitan (or Shiyingtan) deposit, which denes the
westernmost part of the Kanggurtag gold belt, is characterized by features common to many epithermal vein
deposits. The ore is hosted in what is probably a
Permian andesite, often brecciated, that overlies a more
widespread Carboniferous andesitic and dacitic volcanic
arc terrane. A co-magmatic granite porphyry lies beneath the host andesite and also outcrops 300 m to the
southeast of the deposit. Although only 2 km south of
the Yamansu ductile shear zone, the volcanic host rocks
show only brittle features and are unmetamorphosed.
The gold veins occur along what is hypothesized as the
northwestern margin of a large caldera with a well-developed ring dike system (Pirajno et al. 1997). They were
discovered in 1989 during a regional geochemical survey.
The total resource is about 200,000 oz Au, of which
about 30,00035,000 oz have been recovered since 1993
from 510 g/t rock and a large amount of the resource is
awaiting processing in a large stockpile of 15 g/t material. Silver has also been recovered, but no other data
are available other than the fact that the ores average 1:1
409
Ag:Au. Mining was originally by open pit and is now

underground.
Eighteen quartz veins have been identied on the
surface and four of these are being mined (#1, 3, 4, and
5). The largest vein (#3) averages 20 m in width, is 150m-long and continues for 100-m-down-dip. The goldbearing veins consist of cryptocrystalline and chalcedonic quartz, miarolitic uorite, and platy calcite, are
commonly crustiform, and contain low salinity, aqueous
uid inclusions that mainly homogenize between
150200 C (Feng et al. 2000). Metallic phases are very
rare with pyrite being the most common sulde mineral
and comprising much less than 1% of the gold-bearing
veins. It appears more common in the altered andesite
than within the veins themselves. Trace amounts of
arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, copper oxides, and silver
sulfosalts and selenides are also recognized in the veins.
Alteration around the veinlets is zoned from an area of
Fig. 9. Geology and distribution of epithermal and orogenic

gold deposits within the Kanggurtag gold belt, eastern Tian
Shan. The Xitan epithermal
deposit, and Kanggurtag,
Matoutan, Yuanbaoshan, and
Dadonggou replacement(?)
deposits are hosted by a complexly mixed group of
Carboniferous marine sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Figure
generalized from Pirajno et al.
(1997)
silicachloritepyrophyllite, through an area of pyrite

sericite, and to an outer aureole of chloritecarbonate.
Gold grades are highest where local structures intersect
and where the Permian(?) andesite is highly brecciated.
In the #3 vein at Xitan, gold grades progressively
decrease from 10 g/t near the surface to 6 g/t at about
100 m depth.
Many of the features of the hydrothermal system led
Pirajno et al. (1997) to rst classify it as a high-suldation epithermal system. Published absolute dates are
imprecise, with reported UPb and RbSr dates on extrusive rocks and tonalite at the Xitan deposit ranging
between 293 and 234 Ma, and RbSr isochron ages for
breccias and veinlets spread between 288 and 244 Ma
(Li et al. 1998). Measured d18O quartz values ranging
between 4.7 and -8.5 per mil (Feng et al. 2000) are
consistent with a predominantly meteoric water component to the ore-forming uids.
410
Granitoid-related(?) FeCuAu replacement deposits

Other important gold deposits in the Kanggurtag gold
belt appear to be more deeply-formed iron- and copperrich, perhaps granitoid-related gold deposits that appear
mainly as massive replacement bodies in the low metamorphic grade (probably prehnitepumpellyite) Early
Carboniferous volcaniclastic rocks of the Yamansu
Formation. The best studied of these is the Kanggurtag
deposit (also called the Kangguer or #6 Kanggurtag
deposit; Fig. 10), located about 60 km east of Xitan,
which has an approximate 300,000 oz Au resource,
about half of which has been mined to date. The deposit
was discovered in 1989 during regional mapping and
geochemical studies. Pirajno et al. (1997) suggest that
reported sulde zoning at the deposit is consistent with a
low suldation epithermal deposit, although much of the
mineralization style appears like that of a deeper, manto-type deposit. The Matoutan deposit (also called the
#8 Kanggurtag deposit or perhaps the Yaobashan deposit), located 5 km east of the Kanggurtag deposit, has
similar looking FeCuAu-rich ore and the mining operation appears to be more than double that in size of
Kanggurtag. Access to the Matoutan deposit, as well the
release of any geologic and resource data, has been
limited by the local community at the mine site. However, it is likely that the combined resource of the two
deposits, which are probably part of one large mineralizing system, exceeds 1 Moz Au.
The Kanggurtag deposit occurs as a series of occurrences within a 10 5-km area both along and south of
the Yamansu fault. The mineralized zones are about
5 km southeast of a large Variscan tonalite stock, and a
number of small granite dikes are reported within 1 km
of many of the ore zones. Most of the ore at the Kanggurtag deposit is localized along three, NE- to E-striking,
steeply N-dipping ductile shear zones within this area.
The largest single zone of continuous mineralization
within the volcanic and subvolcanic rocks of the Aqishan
Formation is about 200 m along strike, averages 2 m in
width, and continues down-dip for >400 m. An unmineralized 15-m-wide brittleductile shear zone runs
along the length of the footwall of the mineralized zone.
Termed the #2 orebody, the large ore zone exhibits a
replacement style mineralization that contains most of
the gold resource. The ore consists of massive pyrite,
chalcopyrite, and magnetite, with lesser sphalerite, galena, silver sulfosalts, and barite. Hypogene gypsum is
also present. Gold:silver ratios average 1:5, and the ore
is zoned from gold-rich near the top (1,100-m level) to
more copper-rich at depth (600-m level). Highest gold
grades often correlate with the volume of magnetite, and
average gold grades decrease from about 9 g/t at the
near surface to 56 g/t at depths of 200 m. Locally,
metal concentrations reach 5% Pb, 10% Cu, and 10%
Zn. A ve-stage paragenesis stresses three early stages of
gold, pyrite, and magnetite, followed by barren base
metal and carbonate-rich hydrothermal events (Ji et al.
1994; Li et al. 1998).
Quartz veins at Kanggurtag dened a much smaller

part of the resource, occurring in a discontinuous belt for
about 1 km in length, 500 m north of the #2 orebody.
Termed the #1 orebody, the quartz vein-hosted ore was
mined out in 1995. The low-suldation epithermal
quartz veins contain chlorite, sericite, carbonate, and
barite gangue, with pyrite and arsenopyrite as the main
sulde mineral phases (i.e., 525% of the vein volume).
The area surrounding the Kanggurtag and Matoutan
deposits appears highly prospective for the discovery of
additional lode gold deposits. Weathered fragments of
quartz vein material are scattered over an area of perhaps 20 by 2 km, from just west of Kanggurtag to a
large saline lake east of Matoutan. Much of the quartz
looks barren of metals, is often chalcedonic or waxy, but
nonetheless indicates the presence of an extensive hydrothermal system. Late Paleozoic marble outcrops in
the eastern part of the area and suggests an additional
potential for FeCuAu skarn deposits.
Numerous RbSr dates bracket volcanoclastic host
rock deposition to between ca. 300 and 280 Ma, and a
UPb date on the nearby tonalite is 275 Ma (Li et al.
1998). The RbSr method was also used to suggest that
ore formation occurred near the end of this magmatic
episode and/or some 2030 million years later during
Late Permian (Li et al. 1998). Stable isotope measurements range between 11.3 and 17.7 per mil for d18O of
ore-bearing quartz (stages not specied), 53 to 61 per
mil for dD of uid inclusion waters in the quartz, and
0.9 to +3.3 per mil for d34S of suldes from the veins.
These data can not distinguish between a magmatic or
metamorphic uid and sulfur source, but they do provide little support for signicant meteoric water within
the hydrothermal systems at Kanggurtag.
Along the same shear system and 25 km east of the
Kanggurtag deposit, the Dadonggou occurrence (Fig. 9)
was discovered about 10 years ago. The geological setting and host rocks are the same as at Kanggurtag, but
the strike of the shear system is NWW at the Dadonggou occurrence. Granodiorite and plagiogranite dykes,
as long as 3 km and as wide as 100 m, parallel the main
Yamansu fault and the auriferous shear system. Synkinematic, concordant quartz veins are widespread, commonly 10- to 20-m-long and 20- to 30-cm-wide, but they
are barren. A later stage of slightly discordant quartz
K-feldspar and albite veins, contains 510% sulde
minerals, dominantly pyrite, and averages about 12 g/t
Au.
The Kanggurtag gold belt is often shown to continue
far to the east along the Tian Shan, where a monzogranite pluton hosts the Xifengshan II gold occurrence.
The relatively undeformed quartz veins contain gold,
pyrite, and chalcopyrite. Li et al. (1998) claim a RbSr
age of 284 Ma for the host granitoid and 272 Ma age for
mineralization (RbSr on uid inclusions in quartz)
at the Xifengshan II occurrence. If reliable, these data
suggest a relatively consistent Permian age for
gold deposition across the eastern Tian Shan within
Xinjiang.
411
Fig. 10. Local geology of the
Kanggurtag gold deposit, eastern Tian Shan, in a plan view
and b cross section. Although
showing many characteristics of
an orogenic gold deposit,
reported downward zoning
from Au-, to AuCu-, and then
to PbZn-rich veins is more
consistent with many epithermal deposits
412
The deposits along the western edge of adjacent

Gansu province, including the Jinwozi (or Gold Nest;
Fig. 2) and 210 deposits, are often also described as a
part of the Kanggurtag gold belt (e.g. Pirajno et al.
1997). However, these gold deposits are hosted by
Devonian metasedimentary rocks and Permo-Triassic
plutons of the Bei Shan, located to the east of the
RuoqiangXingxingxia fault, which marks the easternmost edge of the Tian Shan. The plutons, which are cut
by widespread gold-bearing quartz veins, have Pb zircon
dates as young as 241 Ma (Ji et al. 1994; Ji and Xue
1996), requiring veining to be post-Permian. The Bei
Shan is likely a part of the Qilian Shan, which was rightlaterally oset sometime in the Mesozoic and/or Cenozoic (Zhou and Graham 1996). Gold deposits within the
westernmost part of the Qilian Shan are Triassic in age
(Mao et al. 2000), and we suggest that these deposits in
the Bei Shan may be an oset part of this gold province
and unrelated to ores of the Kanggurtag gold belt.
Gold-bearing porphyry deposits
A series of porphyry copper deposits, some gold-bearing, were discovered in 1993 during regional mapping in
the northeastern Tian Shan and are located about 80 km
southwest of the town of Hami (Fig. 2). They are presently being drilled and studied by the No. 1 Geological
Team of the Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral
Resources. The deposits are located about 13 km north
of the North Tian Shan (or Kanggur fault) and are
hosted by intrusions into the Early to mid-Carboniferous intermediate to mac volcaniclastic rocks of the
Kanggur arc. The No. 1 Geological Team reports the
intrusive rocks to be of Permian age, whereas a conicting RbSr whole rock date of 370 Ma on the Tuwu
deposit host intrusion (Rui, unpublished data) would
suggest the country rocks must also be older than their
often accepted Carboniferous age. The most reliable age
estimate is probably a new ReOs isochron date of
322.72.5 Ma for seven molybdenite samples from the
deposit (Du et al. 2001).
Initial reports by the No. 1 Geological Team indicate
that the Tuwu porphyry deposit contains about 3 million tons of copper at a cuto grade of 0.2% Cu. In
addition, the deposit is estimated to contain 3 million
ozof Au at an average grade of 0.16 g/t, and also signicant amounts of silver. Stockwork-hosted and disseminated sulde minerals, in the porphyritic and
granod- ioritic host intrusion, are mainly pyrite and
chalcopyrite, with lesser bornite. Biotite is closely associated with the main ore zones, but K-feldspar is absent.
Surrounding alteration zones are dominated by massive
silicication, outward to a quartzsericite zone, then
sericitekaolinite, and nally an epidote-rich outer halo.
Other deposits in this porphyry copper belt, including
Chihu, Tuwu East, Yandong, and Linglong, are even
less well-studied. Gold grades of 0.11 g/t are reported
for Yandong, where chalcopyritemagnetitebiotite-rich
ore zones are hosted by a subvolcanic diorite. Small

epithermal gold veins are also reported to be widespread
throughout this region of the eastern Tian Shan.
Western Tian Shan
Orogenic gold deposits
The Wangfeng deposit (Fig. 2), and adjacent smaller
prospects (e.g. Saridala, Nalongxiaer, and Babagesayi),
are located slightly more than 100 km southwest of the
city of Urumqi. These small orogenic gold occurrences
are restricted to the NW-striking Bingdaban or
Shenglidaban mylonitized shear zone, which separates
Proterozoic to Ordovician, and perhaps Silurian,
orthogneiss, schist, and marble from mainly Early
Carboniferous granitoids, within the northern part of
the Yili block (or central Tian Shan). The shear zone
parallels, and is only 35 km south of, the deep-crustal
North Tian Shan fault zone (locally called the
Hongwuyueqiao fault) and thus may be a related strand
of this major suture zone.
The Wangfeng deposit was discovered in 1988 and
mining began in 1998 on two of nineteen recognized
orebodies, each comprised of numerous quartz veins and
veinlets in the hanging wall of the Bingdaban fault.
Presently, an 80,000 oz Au resource is being mined from
the northwest-striking and near vertical #12 ore zone.
The zone consists of two distinct and parallel, 0.6- to
0.8-m-wide and 1,300-m-long orebodies that are about
10 m apart. To date, less than 1,000 oz Au have been
recovered. The orebodies appear as silicied, ductile
shear zones, with typically 12% pyrite and pyrrhotite(?)
in the gold-bearing veinlets. Although the average gold
grade is 5 g/t, there is a strong zonation from 18 g/t near
the top of #12 down to 1.4 g/t at the lowest levels of the
orebodies.
Dates on the intrusive host rocks range from a UPb
zircon date on biotite granite of 437 Ma to a RbSr date
of 310 Ma on mylonitized plagiogranite, whereas a Rb
Sr date on unspecied material (uid inclusion waters?)
from an auriferous vein was calculated at 277 Ma (Li et
al. 1998). The questionable date on the ore material
would suggest a roughly similar time to gold mineralization in the eastern Tian Shan. The signicance of the
host rock dates are uncertain; they might reect a broad
Silurian through Permian magmatic evolution in the
central Tian Shan, as suggested by Allen et al. (1992).
Geochemical studies (Chen et al. 2000) suggest mineralization may have formed at <5 km and at
240320 C, with stable isotope data too equivocal to
adequately constrain uid and sulfur sources.
The Dashankou deposit, south of the Wangfeng
deposit and QinbulakQawabulak fault, was discovered
in the early 1990s and mining began there in 1995
(Jingwen Mao 2001, personal communication). Large
quartz veins, smaller stockwork systems, and goldenriched altered rock occur along a major east- to
413
southeast-trending brittleductile shear zone, which is

exposed over a length of almost 2 km and a width of
300 m in the mine area. The auriferous quartz contains
minor pyrite, with common sericite and ankerite in
ore-hosting, altered Late Silurian to Early Devonian
metamorphosed clastic rocks. Average grades from
various orebodies range between 13 g/t Au, but locally
reach multiple ounces. No important intrusions are
located in the vicinity of the Dashankou deposit,
although Variscan bodies are recognized regionally
(Jingwen Mao 2001, personal communication).
The Sawayaerdun gold deposit (Fig. 11), along the
ChinaKyrgyzstan border, is the largest recognized
orogenic gold deposit in Xinjiang, with >3 Moz of gold
and a geologically inferred resource of at least 10 Moz
Au. This deposit within the eastern Kokshaal area of the
southern Tian Shan province is hosted by Late Silurian
slates and carbonaceous phyllites. The mid-Paleozoic
rocks are part of a complex sequence of allochthonous
slices, with thrusting having occurred during Variscan
collisions (Biske and Shilov 1998).
Gold mineralization at Sawayaerdun is localized
over a 70-km-long by 50- to 600-m-wide zone between
two regional faults, perhaps sutures between a series of
accreted oceanic terranes. In this belt of highly tectonized metasedimentary rock, economic gold grades of
35 g/t most commonly occur as widespread disseminations. Quartz, sericite, siderite, calcite, and chlorite
are commonly associated with the gold. Pyrite, pyrrhotite, and arsenopyrite are the main ore-associated
suldes, with less common stibnite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and marcasite. Except for a few small
mac dikes, no igneous rocks have been recognized in
this gold-rich zone. Fluid inclusions mainly homogenize
at two modes of 155220 and 260290 C, and contain
abundant CO2 and signicant CH4 and N2 (Ye et al.
1999). Fluid inclusion waters from ore-related gangue
at the Sawayaerdun deposit have dD values of 59 to
84 per mil, and d34S data for sulde minerals range
between about 3 and +1 per mil. Many of these
features, including a probable Permo-Triassic age of
formation, led Ye et al. (1999) to suggest that the
deposit is very similar to the immense Muruntau
deposit, located farther to the west in the southern Tian
Shan province.
On the Kyrgyzstan side of the border, where a continuation of the ores bodies within Early and Middle
Devonian phyllite is known as the Savoyardy deposit,
there is a zoning of mineralized veins (United Nations
1998). A central zone of arsenopyrite-rich quartz veins
grades 6.5 g/t Au and is reported to also contain about
10% Pb. Surrounding polymetallic veins average 4.5%
Sb, 4.5% Pb, and 41.5 g/t Ag. This suggests a districtwide metallogeny similar to that in areas such as Coeur
dAlene (Idaho, USA), Keno Hill (Yukon, Canada), and
Cobar (NSW, Australia), where adjacent gold- and basemetal-rich epigenetic veins may reect metal leaching
from a variety of geochemically-distinct metasedimentary units.
Fig. 11. Local geology of the still poorly studied Sawyaerdun

deposit near the ChinaKyrgyzstan border. A geologically inferred
resource of >10 Moz Au occurs in quartz veins hosted by Late
Silurian slates and carbonaceous phyllites
A few hundred kilometers northeast of the Sawyaerdun deposit, the Bulong deposit is hosted by Late
Devonian clastic rocks. A series of parallel quartz veins
contains gold in minor pyrite, with associated chlorite,
sericite, and carbonate minerals in altered wall rock.
Mining of these veins began in the mid-1990s. Latestage, barren quartzbarite veins are also extensive
within the Bulong deposit. Fluid inclusions from the
gold-bearing quartz are CO2-rich (Jingwen Mao 2001,
personal communication).
Epithermal gold deposits
The 1.6 Moz Au Axi deposit is the most important
epithermal gold deposit in Xinjiang. It is located about
80 km north of Yining and less than 100 km from the
Kazakhstan border (Fig. 2). The deposit was discovered
during regional mapping in 1988 and has produced
about 250,000 oz Au and an unspecied amount of silver since mining began in 1995. Mining is presently by
open pit, but future underground development is planned. The Axi deposit occurs in an Early Carboniferous
volcanic eld that is located in the cover sequence to the
Yili block, which is dominated by Proterozoic carbonate
sequences and OrdovicianSilurian clastic and carbonate rocks. The closest known Variscan granitoid to Axi
414
is 15 km to the northeast, although rare synvolcanic

dikes occur in the deposit area. Many other small gold
and leadzinc vein occurrences are also associated with
the volcanic system, although only the small Tawobieke
deposit is also being mined.
The Axi deposit is hosted by Early Carboniferous
porphyritic andesite of the Dahalajunshan Formation
(Fig. 12) to the south of the North Tian Shan fault.
These host rocks represent part of the late Paleozoic arc
superimposed on the Precambrian Yili block during
collision of the Kunggar arc (or North Tian Shan arc)
from the north (Gao et al. 1998). Volcanic pipe-like
features are associated with NW- to N-trending basement faults (Wang and Wang 1995). Liu et al. (1996)
indicate an association of the Axi deposit with volcanic
ring structures. The deposit is divided into a northern
and southern part, each of which is about 500-m-long.
The auriferous quartz in the northern part is commonly
chalcedonic, sinter-like, and laminated, often showing a
variety of colors among the laminations that reect
signicant dierences in trace element chemistry. Much
of the northern orebody is jasperoidal and there is some
brecciation. The quartz and metals were likely precipitated at very shallow levels and, in part, in a hot springs
Fig. 12. a Local geology map and b cross section of the Axi
epithermal gold deposit. The epithermal veins are hosted along
faults in volcanic breccia within the Early Carboniferous Dahalajunshan Formation. Additional gold resources are contained in an
overlying auriferous conglomerate of the Aqalhe Formation.
Figure generalized from Liu et al. (1996)
environment. The nearby Yiermand gold occurrence is

also suggested to have formed in a hot springs environment within rocks of the Dahalajunshan Formation
(Zhai et al. 1999). The southern orebody at Axi is more
diuse, with extensive silicication and stockworking,
rather than discreet veins. Brecciation is much more
extensive.
Fine-grained pyrite is the most common sulde
mineral in the Axi deposit. Arsenopyrite and scoradite
are also common minor constituents of the ores. Liu
et al. (1996) also note the occurrence of rare, negrained tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, and galena, and sericite, siderite, and calcite, along with silica, are the main
gangue phases. Propylitic, argillic, and phyllic alteration
zones surround the orebodies. The deposit averages
5.7 g/t Au, with slightly higher grades in the north part
and local concentrations of 150 g/t Au, and exhibits a
Au:Ag ratio of 1:2. Ore uids were low salinity and ore
formation temperatures between 135 and 200 C (Liu
et al. 1996).
An auriferous basal conglomerate at the Axi deposit
(Fig. 12) occurs in the overlying, late Early to midCarboniferous intertidal sedimentary rocks of the Aqalhe Formation (Liu et al. 1996). This may represent
accumulations of gold eroded from older epithermal
quartz veins at Axi, although the intertidal environment
is an unlikely setting for such a conglomerate. Perhaps,
however, this is some type of coastal-margin, waveformed bar or channel-ll accumulation.
The age of mineralization at Axi is unclear. Li et al.
(1998) report a series of RbSr and 40Ar/39Ar dates on
415
quartz veins that range between 344 and 301 Ma. The
oldest date agrees well with the hypothesized genetic
association between Early Carboniferous volcanism and
epithermal gold deposition. The Late Carboniferous
dates are younger than the volcanic rock host sequences,
but are not inconsistent with other magmatism in this
part of the Yili block that continued until the end of the
Carboniferous (Gao et al. 1998; Li et al. 1998).
Gold deposits of the Kunlun Shan

The Kunlun Shan, along the southern margin of the
Tarim basin, have relatively little recognized gold resources. However, small paleo-terrace and bench type
placer gold deposits are scattered along the northern
foothills of the Kunlun Shan for more than 1,000 km.
These occurrences extend from Hetian in the west,
across all Xinjiang, and into Qinghai province in the
east. In addition, broad areas with extremely anomalous
gold values in stream sediments have been identied
throughout the western Kunlun Shan (Minco Mining
and Metals Corp News Release, 21 May 1997).
The source for much of this gold is the high peaks of
the Kunlun Shan, reaching 6,2007,600 m in Xinjiang,
where dicult access has prevented signicant exploration for lode sources. Because much of this remote
country is covered by extensive ice and snow, nding the
sources for the anomalies and placer accumulations will
continue to be dicult. It is likely, however, that source
lodes are orogenic gold deposits located in the uplifted
ysch of the Tianshuihai terrane. These deposits theoretically could have formed during hydrothermal events
that would have occurred during Late Triassic to Early
Jurassic (i.e. Indosinian time), greenschist facies metamorphism and magmatism within the metasedimentary
rocks as they collided with the Precambrian Tarim
QaidamKunlun nucleus. The small Wulonggou, Tanjianshan, Qinglonggou, Kaihuangbei, Dongdatan, and
Dachang orogenic gold occurrences in the eastern
Kunlun Shan (Yu et al. 1998; Cui et al. 2000), where the
range extends into adjacent Qinghai province, are likely
a part of the belt that has contributed to the placers.
Orebodies at the Wulonggou deposit cut granitoids as
young as early Mesozoic (Yu et al. 1999) and, therefore,
provide support for a post-Paleozoic origin for lode gold
deposits in the Kunlun Shan. Absolute dates of ca. 160
200 Ma, using RbSr and KAr methods on ore-related
minerals, conrm a Jurassic timing (Qian et al. 2000;
Wang and Hu 2000).
Synthesis of gold metallogeny of Xinjiang

The mountain ranges of Xinjiang are favorable for the
occurrence of Variscan (late Paleozoic) or Indosinian
(early Mesozoic) gold-bearing orogenic, epithermal, replacement and VMS deposits. The former gold deposit
type may be associated with economic placer accumu-
lations, especially in the northernmost Altay Shan and

the northern foothills to the Kunlun Shan. Good deposit-scale maps of the deposits and main districts are
notably lacking. Almost no well-documented ore deposit
studies exist in the western literature that describe individual deposits over this vast part of China. There is a
fair amount of geochronology, uid inclusion microthermometry, and stable isotope studies within the Chinese literature, but the general contradictory nature of
much of the data make these dicult to evaluate. Nevertheless, combining (1) preliminary eld examination of
some of these deposits by some of us, (2) the published
characteristics of many of the deposits as described in
the Chinese literature, and (3) our evaluation of the
spatial distribution of the gold resources, allows for a
better understanding of the gold resources in Xinjiang.
Late Paleozoic terrane accretion and collisional orogenesis of early to mid-Paleozoic marine sequences
between Precambrian blocks provided a tectonic environment highly favorable for the formation of orogenic
lode gold deposits. Growth of the Altaid complex
throughout the Paleozoic included formation of orogenic gold deposits that young to the southwest within a
growing continental margin. Latest hydrothermal events
of the orogen led to the development of gold vein systems in the Early Carboniferous(?), and perhaps earlier
times in northernmost Xinjiang, and in the southernmost part of the Altay Shan and adjacent areas now
surrounding the Junggar basin in the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian. Overlapping the nal stages of
Altaid orogenesis, and likely elsewhere along the same
northern Paleo-Tethys Ocean continental margin,
Permian translation of terranes accreted in the midPaleozoic was also associated with localized orogenic
gold-vein formation in the southern Tian Shan. The
restriction of orogenic gold deposits in the Chinese Tian
Shan to the Sawyaerdun deposit and the area south of
Urumqi may reect the predominance of unfavorable
shallow crustal rocks in the eastern Tian Shan and the
limited exploration in the rugged alpine country of the
western part of the mountain range. The occurrence of
the Kumtor deposit in the latter, very close to the
Xinjiang border, further identies this as an area that is
extremely permissive for the discovery of important
orogenic gold deposits. Continued collisions in the early
Mesozoic, to the south of the Tarim basin, led to
development of the youngest gold lodes in Xinjiang,
localized in the mainly inaccessible high elevations of the
Kunlun Shan.
The recognition of epithermal gold deposits as old as
Paleozoic and within areas of extensive regional uplift is
exceptional and of great scientic and economic interest.
These include small epithermal deposits in the southern
Altay Shan, the Early Carboniferous Axi deposit in the
central Tian Shan, the Early(?) Permian Xitan deposit in
the southern Tian Shan, and Early Carboniferous (?)
Jinshangou deposit in the East Junggar area. Whereas
many deeper types of gold deposits are classied as
epithermal in the Chinese literature simply because of
416
the presence of volcanic rock units, this does not seem to

be the case with these deposits; they possess many features characteristic of both low and high suldation
epithermal deposits. Clearly, therefore, given the emplacement of the gold deposits within the upper 12 km
of crust, some locations have selectively seen limited
amounts of erosion during the last 300 million years,
despite extensive uplift and resulting erosion to form the
thick basin ll over much of Xinjiang. This is especially
true at Axi, where gold ores were likely deposited partly
in a hot springs environment. The replacement style
mineralization in the Kanggurtag gold belt and the
porphyry deposits to the northeast are also probably
products of the same broad Early Permian, graniterelated hydrothermal event preserved in the eastern Tian
Shan. It is possible that the onset of Permian extension
along the northern side of the Tian Shan, responsible for
basin formation in northern Xinjiang, was a driving
force for establishing these shallow-level metalliferous
systems.
Coexistence of epithermal and orogenic gold deposits
within the Altaid and Tian Shan orogens may not be all
that surprising when considered in the context of the
entire orogen. For example, in the Cordilleran orogen of
western North America, gold metallogeny is dominated
by orogenic gold deposits and associated placers.
However, where there are many places where shallow
crustal levels are preserved within the generally deeply
exposed terrane melange, and in these areas such as the
Kuskokwim basin of southwestern Alaska and the
California Coast Ranges, epithermal veins systems are
common. Within the Central Asia republics, epithermal
and porphyry deposits are generally found north (inland) of the main suture in the Tian Shan and of the
large orogenic gold deposits. This same relationship
does not seem to hold in the Chinese Tian Shan because
the Xitan deposit and other shallow-level deposits of the
Kanggurtag gold belt are located south of the suture
(North Tian Shan fault) and at the easternmost edge of
the extensive mountain chain. Relationships of the epithermal systems to the subduction history in the Chinese
Tian Shan are also especially dicult given the complexities of the both northerly- and southerly-directed
underthrusting.
It would appear that, in addition to epigenetic gold
deposits, gold-bearing VMS deposits should be important exploration targets in the mountain ranges of
Xinjiang. Throughout the world, spatial overlap of VMS
and orogenic gold deposits is well-recognized and should
be expected with continental growth that includes accretion of oceanic volcanic rock sequences. Small Devonian VMS systems are well known throughout the
Altay Shan and these are economically signicant where
they continue into adjacent Kazakhstan. Well-recognized VMS deposits are not reported from the Tian
Shan, but there is no reason not to expect their presence
within the range.
In summary, the tectonics of Xinjiang provides a very
favorable geological environment for gold deposits and
this is now being widely recognized. Both accreted syngenetic and post-accretionary epigenetic gold systems
are located within or predicted to occur in the wellexposed Altay Shan, Tian Shan, and Kunlun Shan.
Large tonnage gold deposits in adjacent countries indicate that future discoveries in Xinjiang are likely to be of
economic signicance.
Acknowledgements This paper has beneted greatly from the many
achievements of the Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral
Resources and their Project 305. It is, in part, a research result of
Major State Basic Research Program of Peoples Republic of China
(no. G1999043211), as well as part of a collaboration between the
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the Minerals Program of the US Geological Survey. Extensive comments from
Jingwen Mao, as well as reviews by Peter Pollard and Kai Yang are
appreciated. Mine site discussions with Craig Hart, Marti Miller,
and Yi-Tian Wang helped increase our understanding of many of
the Tian Shan deposits.
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Mineralium Deposita (2002) 37: 393418

Zongyao Rui Richard J. Goldfarb Yumin Qiu

Paleozoicearly Mesozoic gold deposits of the

Abstract The late Paleozoicearly Mesozoic tectonic

blocks. These sutures are now represented by the Altay

Shan of southern Xinjiang host scattered, small placer

Project jointly supported by the Chinese Ministry of

Early Carboniferous andesite

Early Carboniferous ysch

Devonian phyllite, graywacke,

Neoprot. to Ordovician phyllite

Devonian phyllite and slate

Kelameili fault system

Kelameili fault system

Kelameili fault system

Dalabute fault system

Dalabute fault system

Irtysh fault system

Aermantai fault system

Aermantai fault system

Irtysh fault system

Irtysh fault system

Irtysh fault system

Irtysh fault system

the Central Asian republics. In Kazakhstan, the Altay

Geological setting of Xinjiang

Xinjiang is situated with the south-central part of the Eurasian

tion complexes added to the Eurasia continent between the Tarim

Fig. 3. Generalized geologic map of the Altay Shan region in

reactivated as a major sinistral strike-slip system. Anatectic granites

Gold deposits of the Altay Shan

Northern Altay Shan

absolute dates (Wang et al. 1993), but the dominant

found that are clearly spatially associated with the

granodiorite and plagiogranite dikes, some of which cut

on a felsic dike at the Shaerbulake deposit overlaps a

Buerkesidai deposit, gold-bearing stockworks occur

Gold deposits of the western Junggar area

districts (Fig. 7). The regional structures are thought to

and the carbonaceous, volcaniclastic metasedimentary

tricts (Bohlke 1989). A talcmagnesitequartz alteration

Gold deposits of the eastern Junggar area

Whereas none of these deposits have been dated, it is

Gold deposits of the Tian Shan

Epithermal gold deposits

Ag:Au. Mining was originally by open pit and is now

Fig. 9. Geology and distribution of epithermal and orogenic

silicachloritepyrophyllite, through an area of pyrite

Granitoid-related(?) FeCuAu replacement deposits

Quartz veins at Kanggurtag dened a much smaller

The deposits along the western edge of adjacent

ore zones are hosted by a subvolcanic diorite. Small

southeast-trending brittleductile shear zone, which is

Fig. 11. Local geology of the still poorly studied Sawyaerdun

is 15 km to the northeast, although rare synvolcanic

environment. The nearby Yiermand gold occurrence is

Gold deposits of the Kunlun Shan

Synthesis of gold metallogeny of Xinjiang

lations, especially in the northernmost Altay Shan and

the presence of volcanic rock units, this does not seem to

Kogarko LN, Kononova VA, Orlova MP, Woolley AR (1994)

Yang X, Xie G, Li Z (1992) Mylonitemigmatite lithogenic series

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