Abstract The western Tianshan Gold Belt hosts numerous giant and large gold deposits that have been formed during the late Paleozoic amalgamation of the Tianshan orogen. However, little is known about their exhumation histories during the Mesozoic to Cenozoic intracontinental evolution of the orogen. The Carboniferous Katebasu orogenic gold deposit in northwestern China is a new gold discovery within the western Tianshan Gold Belt, and it shares many similarities with other orogenic gold deposits in the belt. In this contribution, new 40 Ar/ 39 Ar and (U–Th)/He ages were combined with previous geochronology and numerical modelling to quantify its post-Carboniferous cooling and exhumation history. The results revealed a three-phase cooling history and two phases of post-mineralization exhumation. We suggest that a large volume ( c. 0.8 km) of the mineralized roof parts of the Katebasu deposit might have been removed during uplift and erosion, whereas significant ore reserves could still exist at depth. The large erosion depth of the Katebasu gold deposit in the Nalati Range of the Chinese western Tianshan also signifies that shallow-emplaced porphyry and epithermal systems that formed prior to Permo-Triassic uplift might have been largely eroded.

Abstract Muruntau in the Central Kyzylkum desert of the South Tien Shan, western Uzbekistan, with past production of ~3,000 metric tons (t) Au since 1967, present annual production of ~60 t Au, and large remaining resources, is the world’s largest epigenetic Au deposit. The host rocks are the mainly Cambrian-Ordovician siliciclastic flysch of the Besapan sequence. The rocks were deformed into a broadly east-west fold-and-thrust belt prior to ca. 300 Ma during ocean closure along the South Tien Shan suture. A subsequent tectonic transition was characterized by left-lateral motion on regional splays from the suture and by a massive thermal event documented by widespread 300 to 275 Ma magmatism. The Besapan rocks were subjected to middle to upper greenschist-facies regional metamorphism, an overprinting more local thermal metamorphism to produce a large hornfels aureole, and then Au-related hydrothermal activity all during early parts of the thermal event. The giant Muruntau Au deposit formed in the low-strain hornfels rocks at ca. 288 Ma at the intersection of one of the east-west splays, the Sangruntau-Tamdytau shear zone, with a NE-trending regional fault zone, the Muruntau-Daugyztau fault, which likely formed as a cross fault during the onset of left-lateral translation on the regional splays. Interaction between the two faults opened a large dilational zone along a plunging anticlinorium fold nose that served as a major site for hydrothermal fluid focusing. The Au ores are dominantly present as a series of moderately to steeply dipping quartz ± K-feldspar stockwork systems surrounding uncommon central veins and with widespread lower Au-grade metasomatites (i.e., disseminated ores). Pervasive alteration is biotite-K-feldspar, although locally albitization is dominant. Sulfides are mainly arsenopyrite, pyrite, and lesser pyrrhotite, and scheelite may be present both in preore ductile veins and in the more brittle auriferous stockwork systems. The low-salinity, aqueous-carbonic ore-forming fluids probably deposited the bulk of the ore at 400 ° ± 50 ° C and 6-to 10-km paleodepth. The genesis of the deposit remains controversial with metamorphic, thermal aureole gold (TAG), and models related to mantle upwelling all having been suggested in recent years. More importantly, the question as to why there was such a focusing of so much Au and fluid into this one location, forming an ore system an order of magnitude larger than other giant Au deposits in metamorphic terranes, remains unresolved.

Abstract Sandstone-hosted copper (sandstone Cu) deposits occur within a 200-km reach of the northern Chu-Sarysu basin of central Kazakhstan (Dzhezkazgan and Zhaman-Aibat deposits, and the Zhilandy group of deposits). The deposits consist of Cu sulfide minerals as intergranular cement and grain replacement in 10 ore-bearing members of sandstone and conglomerate within a 600- to 1,000-m thick Pennsylvanian fluvial red-bed sequence. Copper metal content of the deposits ranges from 22 million metric tons (Mt, Dzehzkazgan) to 0.13 Mt (Karashoshak in the Zhilandy group), with average grades of 0.85 to 1.7% Cu and significant values for silver (Ag) and rhenium (Re). Broader zones of iron reduction (bleaching) of sandstones and conglomerates of the red-bed sequence extend over 10 km beyond each of the deposits along E-NE-trending anticlines, which began to form in the Pennsylvanian. The bleached zones and organic residues within them are remnants of former petroleum fluid accumulations trapped by these anticlines. Deposit sites along these F 1 anticlines are localized at and adjacent to the intersections of nearly orthogonal N-NW-trending F 2 synclines. These structural lows served to guide the flow of dense ore brines across the petroleum-bearing anticlines, resulting in ore sulfide precipitation where the two fluids mixed. The ore brine was sourced either from the overlying Early Permian lacustrine evaporitic basin, whose depocenter occurs between the major deposits, or from underlying Upper Devonian marine evaporites. Sulfur isotopes indicate biologic reduction of sulfate but do not resolve whether the sulfate was contributed from the brine or from the petroleum fluids. New Re-Os age dates of Cu sulfides from the Dzhezkazgan deposit indicate that mineralization took place between 299 to 309 Ma near the Pennsylvanian-Permian age boundary. At the Dzhezkazgan and some Zhilandy deposits, F 2 fold deformation continued after ore deposition. Copper orebodies in Lower Permian shale near the Zhaman-Aibat deposit indicate that at least some of the mineralization there is younger than at Dzhezkazgan, consistent with the Re-Os age and with differences in their ore Pb isotopes.