Selenga ore district in Western Transbaikalia: structural and mineragenetic zoning, genetic types of deposits and geodynamic settings of ore localization

Abstract

Based on complex structural, geological, and mineragenetic metallogenic studies, taking into account the results of earlier subject-specific, prospecting, mapping, and exploration works, it has been established that Upper Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic tectono-magmatic structures are widely developed within the ore district. They are associated with the development of the transregional Upper Paleozoic Selenga-Vitim volcano-plutonic belt of riftogenic type as well as with the formation of the Early Mesozoic Western Transbaikalian zone of intraplate magmatism. The main commercially important mineral raw material resources of the Selenga ore district which are located in the ore clusters (the Kunaley, Kizhinga, Cheremshanka-Oshurkovo, Tashir etal.) and beyond their bounds are associated with the Late Paleozoic-Mesozoic magmatic activity. It is shown that molybdenum and beryllium are the main ore mineral resources within the investigated ore district which establish its mineragenetic features. The new material characteristics of the Upper Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic intraplate magmatic complexes and the associated deposits of mineral raw materials (Mo, Be, Ti, quartz, fluorite and apatite raw materials) and other promising ore objects of gold, uranium and rare-earth-barium-strontium mineralization are obtained. The geodynamic conditions of their formation and the main age boundaries of the ore-forming processes are revealed, the prospects of mining in the Selenga ore district and the involvement of this ore potential in the program of the regions economic modernization are estimated.