Zijinshan Mine, Zijinshan ore field, Shanghang Co., Longyan, Fujian, Chinai

Regional Level Types
Zijinshan Mine	Mine
Zijinshan ore field	Ore Field
Shanghang Co.	County
Longyan	Prefecture-level City
Fujian	Province
China	Country

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High sulphidation, epithermal Au-Cu mineralization in hydrothermal breccias and veins within a system of NW striking fissures, preferentially developed around a dacite porphyry pipe in the center of a dacite volcanic dome complex. The dacite porphyry grades down into a granodiorite porphyry which contains potassic alteration and porphyry Cu-Au style mineralization. Sericite and clay alteration and silicification is pervasive. The gold mineralization is restricted to a layer on top of the copper mineralization. Within this zone, copper mineralization is negligible. In addition, hidden porphyry-style copper-(molybdenum) ore bodies occur at depth in the southeastern part of the mine.

With the vertical length of its ore body exceeding 1500 m. It contains 305 t Au at a grade of 0.58 g/t and 2.32 Mt Cu at a grade of 0.36 %. The deposits occur adjacent to a partially eroded Early Cretaceous volcanic dome. The wall rocks mainly consist of the Late Jurassic Zijinshan granite complex, with the Late Cretaceous dacite dikes intrusion in the southern part.

The Zijinshan deposit comprises two distinct ore zones: a shallow, supergene Au-rich domain containing 575 Mt of ore with an average grade of 0.53 g/t Au, and an underlying hypogene Cu–Au–Ag system with resources of 646 Mt at 0.63% Cu, 0.07 g/t Au, and 3.7 g/t Ag. The deposit is situated along the northern margin of the Shanghang volcanic basin, a Mesozoic rhomb-shaped depression approximately 25 km long and 8 km wide. Mineralization is genetically and temporally related to Early Cretaceous magmatism (∼115–96 Ma), including: (1) the Sifang granodiorite stock (107.8 ± 1.2 Ma); (2) the Luoboling granodiorite porphyry (106.9 ± 0.4 Ma; Fig. 2); and (3) the central dacite porphyry diatreme and associated dikes (104.8 ± 0.9 Ma), all of which intrude the Zijinshan granite. In contrast, weakly altered post-mineral dikes—such as the Jintonghu monzonite (96.1–94.9 Ma)—lack a clear spatial or genetic association with ore formation.
Gold mineralization forms a NW–SE-trending orebody more than 2 km long and 1 km wide, predominantly developed above 600 m elevation (cutoff grade: 0.2 ppm Au). Gold is mainly hosted by Fe oxyhydroxides (e.g., goethite and limonite) within intensely oxidized and leached rocks. Ore occurs as disseminations, veinlets, and breccia cements, and is hosted primarily by granite (>50%), with subordinate contributions from hydrothermal breccias (∼25%) and dacite porphyry (∼20%).
In contrast, copper mineralization is restricted to the hypogene zone below ∼650 m elevation and extends to at least 400 m below sea level, with an average grade of ∼0.6% Cu. Copper sulfides are dominated by digenite and covellite (together accounting for ∼90% of the sulfide assemblage), accompanied by minor enargite, bornite, and sulfosalt minerals. These minerals occur mainly as vein fillings and breccia cements and are spatially associated with advanced argillic alteration.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

46 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded