Located on the easternmost portion of the northern margin of the North China Craton (NCC). The Jiapigou orefield is one of the most important gold-producing districts in China, having been responsible for nearly half of Chinas gold production during the 1960s.

The deposits are hosted by Archaean metamorphic rocks, in a shear zone and fault system that defines the boundary between the NCC and its adjacent orogenic belt to the northeast. They lie within several ductile shear zones cutting late Archean gneissic tonalite, trondhjemite, and granodiorite and amphibolite (2523±6 Ma), which have been retrogressed to greenschist facies. The deposits occur as massive auriferous quartz veins that contain sulphides (<10 vol.%) and, less commonly, disseminated- and stockwork-style mineralisations. While phyllic assemblages are the most common alteration style, potassic and chloritic alteration characterises felsic and mafic host rocks, respectively. No major intrusions are recorded in the area, although felsic, alkaline and mafic dykes are common, usually occupying the same fault system as the gold lodes. Dykes also locally host gold mineralisation. Zircon SHRIMP U­-Pb dates on pre-ore dykes yield ages of around 220 Ma, constraining the maximum age of gold mineralisation, whereas 40Ar/39Ar dates on hydrothermal sericite give an age of approximately 204 Ma suggesting a late Triassic gold-forming event. This timing is coeval with, or slightly later than, the post-orogenic magmatism that followed the final orogenesis of the Inner Mongolian-Daxinganling orogenic belt (IMDOB), which bounds the NCC to the north, suggesting that a post-orogenic tectonic setting is appropriate for the late Triassic gold mineralisation.

More than 100 gold deposits and occurrences have been delineated in this area that extends from southern Jilin Prefecture into western Yanbian Prefecture.

The Jiapigou auriferous zone is one of the largest gold-producing areas in China with annual gold production of ∼1500 kg of the >150 t of gold reserves. The Jiapigou gold belt covers an area of about 30 km x 0.8 km, with nearly a dozen of gold deposits distributed along the Jiapigou shear zone. The belt has experienced three major deformation episodes i.e., a pre-ore ductile stage, an ore forming ductile–brittle stage, and a post-ore/late deformation. The host rock consists of trondhjemite–tonalite–granodiorite (TTG) rocks of Archean- to Palaeoproterozoic age. The lithological assemblages on the north-eastern side comprises of the Phanerozoic granitoids and low to medium grade metamorphic rocks ranging from Proterozoic to Palaeozoic age.
The Jiapigou auriferous zone is one of the largest gold-producing areas in China with annual gold production of ∼1500 kg of the >150 t of gold reserves. The Jiapigou gold belt covers an area of about 30 km x 0.8 km, with nearly a dozen of gold deposits distributed along the Jiapigou shear zone. The belt has experienced three major deformation episodes i.e., a pre-ore ductile stage, an ore forming ductile–brittle stage, and a post-ore/late deformation.

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References