The metallogenic characteristics and exploring ore potential of the gold deposits in eastern Liaoning Province

The eastern Liaoning Province is one of the most important Au ore-concentrated areas in China. The Mesozoic tectonic and magmatic activities developed in eastern Liaoning Province accompanied with the intense gold mineralization. According to the time-space distributions and metallogenic characteristics of the gold deposits, the eastern Liaoning Province can be divided into three gold ore-concentrated districts: the Qingchengzi, the Wulong and the Maoliang districts. Gold deposits includes two gold mineralization types: quartz vein type and altered rock type. The quartz vein type gold deposits are controlled by the high-angle fault system, and the altered rock type gold deposits are controlled by the low-angle fault system. The ore-forming epochs of the gold mineralization in eastern Liaoning Province are major Early Cretaceous with minor Early Jurassic. Combing with the H-O isotopes, ore-forming fluids and geological studies, we think that: (1) the gold mineralization is related to the Mesozoic magmatic activities, and is characterized by the strong silicification and sericitization; (2) the gold deposits belong to the magmatic hydrothermal gold deposit; and (3) the filling and mixing might be the major depositional mechanism of the gold deposits. The gold hydrothermal ore-forming system of the eastern Liaoning Province is divided into two sub-ore-forming systems by the occurrence environment and features of the gold deposits: the gold ore-forming system hosted in Mesozoic granitoids (the Wulong type) and the gold ore-forming system hosted in Paleoproterozoic metamorphic rocks (the Qingchengzi type and Maoling type). By integrating the progress of the prospecting and recent studies, we set up the geological model of prospecting and prediction for gold deposits in Liaodong area, and proposed that eastern Liaodong area has the similar gold ore-forming conditions with the Jiaodong area, and therefore, the eastern Liaodong area also has huge metallogenic potentiality. The studied works has guiding significance for the regional mineral prospecting.