Recognition of a Middle-Late Jurassic arc-related porphyry copper belt along the southeast China coast: Geological characteristics and metallogenic implications

Recent exploration has led to definition of a Middle-Late Jurassic copper belt with an extent of similar to 2000 km along the southeast China coast. The 171-153 Ma magmatic-hydrothermal copper systems consist of porphyry, skarn, and vein-style deposits. These systems developed along several northeast-trending transpressive fault zones formed at the margins of Jurassic volcanic basins, although the world-class 171 Ma Dexing porphyry copper system was controlled by a major reactivated Neoproterozoic suture zone in the South China block. The southeast China coastal porphyry belt is parallel to the northeast-trending, temporally overlapping, 165-150 Ma tin-tungsten province, which developed in the Nanling region in a back-arc transtensional setting several hundred kilometers inboard. A new geodynamicmetallogenic model linking the two parallel belts is proposed, which is similar to that characterizing the Cenozoic metallogenic evolution of the Central Andes.

Automated summary

Recent exploration in southeast China has led to the discovery of a Middle-Late Jurassic copper belt, consisting of magmatic-hydrothermal copper systems developed along several northeast-trending transpressive fault zones. This copper belt runs parallel to the tin-tungsten province in the Nanling region, located several hundred kilometers inland.