Abstract China produces about 450 t Au per year and has government stated in-ground reserves of approximately 12,000 t Au. Orogenic gold, or gold deposits in metamorphic rocks, and associated placer deposits compose about 65 to 75% of this endowment, with lodes existing as structurally hosted vein and/or disseminated orebodies. The abundance of orogenic gold deposits reflects Paleozoic to Triassic closure of Paleo-Tethyan ocean basins between Precambrian blocks derived from Rodinia and Gondwana as well as late Mesozoic-Cenozoic circum-Pacific events and Cenozoic Himalayan orogeny. The deposits range in age from middle Paleozoic to Pleistocene. The Jiaodong Peninsula contains about one-third of China’s overall endowment, and large resources also characterize East Qinling, West Qinling, and the Youjiang basin. Although gold ores in Jiaodong postdate formation and metamorphism of Precambrian host rocks by billions of years, they are nevertheless classified here as orogenic gold ores rather than as a unique Jiaodong-type or decratonic-type of gold deposit. Similarly, although many workers classify the gold lodes in the Youjiang basin and much of West Qinling as Carlin-type gold, they show significant differences from gold ores in Nevada, United States, and are better defined as epizonal orogenic gold deposits. Although there are widespread exposures of Precambrian rocks in China, there are no significant Precambrian gold deposits. If large ancient orogenic gold deposits formed in Archean and Paleoproterozoic rocks, then they have been eroded, because these deep crustal rocks that are now exposed in China’s cratonic blocks have been uplifted from levels too deep for orogenic gold formation. The oldest large gold deposits in China are perhaps those of the Qilian Shan that were formed in association with Silurian tectonism along the present-day southwestern margin of the North China block. Closure of ocean basins in the outer parts of the Central Asian orogenic belt led to late Carboniferous to Middle Triassic orogenic gold formation in the Tian Shan, Altay Shan, Beishan, and northwestern North China block. Deformation associated with amalgamation of the North China block, northern Tibet terranes, South China block, and Indochina, as well as initial Paleo-Pacific subduction, can be related to Late Triassic orogenic gold formation in West Qinling, East Kunlun, Youjiang basin, West Jiangnan (Xuefengshan belt), Hainan Island, and Yunkaidashan gold provinces. In the middle Mesozoic, continued subduction along the Paleo-Pacific margin was associated with gold ores forming in East and Central Jiangnan, whereas early to middle Mesozoic deformation along the northern North China block formed important orogenic lodes in Precambrian basement (e.g., Jiapigou, Zhangjiakou, and Yanshan districts). Continued Yanshanian orogeny in the eastern half of the North China block led to extensive orogenic gold formation during the main period of decratonization and regional extension at ca. 135 to 120 Ma (e.g., Jiaodong, Liaodong, Chifeng-Chaoyang, Zhangbaling, Taihangshan, and East Qinling). At the same time, strike-slip events in central Transbaikal were associated with orogenic gold formation in both Russia and adjacent northeastern China and likely are the source for China’s most productive gold placers in the upper Heilongjiang basin. China’s youngest orogenic gold deposits formed in the Ailaoshan, Lanping basin, Ganzi-Litang belt, Daduhe district, and areas south of the Lhasa terrane in Tibet during the middle Cenozoic, as well as in the northern half of the Central Range of Taiwan during the Pliocene-Pleistocene.

Abstract The geologic framework of China is dominated by three major Precambrian continental blocks (North China, South China, and Tarim) and their surrounding orogenic belts. The Phanerozoic tectonics of China are represented by three orogenic systems that formed via amalgamation of these blocks and subduction/accretion along most of their margins. These orogenic systems include the Early Cambrian to early Mesozoic Altaids in the north, the Early Cambrian to Cenozoic Tethysides in the south, and the Mesozoic to present Nipponides in the east. The Altaids in northern Xinjiang, Beishan, Alxa, Inner Mongolia, and northeastern China comprises a huge orogenic collage of the Central Asian orogenic belt. The Altaids formed by substantial Phanerozoic continental growth by ocean closure and terrane accretion in the Permian-Triassic until its termination by collision with the Tarim and North China blocks in the Permo-Triassic. Southward subduction of the Mongol-Okhotsk oceanic plate beneath the North China block led to widespread magmatism and deformation in the Mesozoic. The Tethysides that occupy most of the area south of the Tarim and North China blocks acted as a major bulwark against the collision of several continental blocks, including the South China block. The western Tethysides in China is occupied by the Kunlun-Altyn-Qilian and Himalaya-Tibetan orogens that record a long amalgamation history involving the evolution of the Proto-, Paleo-, and Neo-Tethys Oceans. The Tethys Ocean was finally terminated by collision between the Indian continent and the southern margin of the Eurasian continent, giving rise to the bulk of the Tibetan Plateau. The development of the eastern Tethysides in China was dominated by Triassic amalgamation between the South China and North China blocks, which gave rise to the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu orogens, and coeval collisions with microcontinental blocks such as the Indochina block in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. The evolution of the Nipponides started in the late Paleozoic to Triassic along the eastern margin of the Chinese mainland as a result of subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Ocean. The development of the Nipponides in the Jurassic led to extension of the Altaids in northeastern China and deformation along complicated compressional and strike-slip structures in the eastern North China block. This was followed by delamination of the lower crust of the eastern half of the North China block in the Early Cretaceous. The latest development of the Nipponides in the past few million years led to formation of marginal seas and back-arc basins off coastal China, and to recent continent-arc collision in Taiwan Island. The early Paleozoic history of China was dominated by separation of the Tarim, North China, and South China blocks from Gondwanaland and their drift across the Panthalassic Ocean. The Tarim-Alxa-North China-South China backbone that formed in the Permian-Triassic played an important role in the construction of China. According to the temporal-spatial history of the Tarim-Alxa-North China-South China block and its surrounding orogens, we postulate that most of the Paleo-Asian Ocean originally belonged to, or was part of, the Paleo-Pacific (Panthalassic) Ocean. Therefore, only two major oceanic plates were responsible for the construction of the Chinese landmass in the Phanerozoic, i.e., the Pacific (Panthalassic) and the Tethys. The Pacific Ocean encompassed a major long-lived, external ocean, and the Tethys Ocean was an internal ocean within Pangea.