On the massive metal accumulation on the eastern margin of the North China Craton and the prospecting evaluation — a case study of Jiaojia gold concentration belt

Abstract

North China Craton, with characteristics of the multistage tectonic evolution, has experienced a long geological history of more than 3.8 billion years, which records almost all the major geological events from the early crust development stage to the Mesozoic and has formed rich mineral resources and unique dominant minerals. Jiaodong terrane, on the eastern margin of the North China Craton, has become the basement after experiencing the evolution of Precambrian formation. Controlled by the tectonic regime in the Mesozoic, this terrane witnessed the strong crust-mantle interaction, and became the largest gold producer in China after forming the massive metal accumulation and an outbreak of large-scale metallogenic events. Previous scholars have conducted extensive researches on the metallogenic theory of Jiaodong Gold Concentrating Area and applied it to prospecting and exploration; with the increasing difficulty in prospecting and the deployment of deep prospecting, finding out the new prospecting methods has become the study focus. Based on the analysis of the regional tectonic evolution and the research on the metallogenic theory of the massive metal concentration, this paper has summed up some favorable geological conditions for ore-formation and ore-controlling, and with Jiaojia gold concentration belt as a case study and combined with the geophysical and geochemical data in this area, this paper has deduced the deep mineralization space with the three-dimensional geological modeling technique, which has achieved the integration of metallogenic theory and prospecting methods. The result indicates that forecast areas deep resources in the Jiaojia gold concentration belt is 842.88 t. More importantly, it delineated 7 undeveloped predicted targets for deep prospecting which provided a scientific basis for prospecting exploration.