The Junggar Immature Continental Crust Province and Its Mineralization

Abstract  According to the study on the peripheral orogenic belts of the Junggar basin and combined with the interpretation of geophysical data, this paper points out that there is an Early Paleozoic basement of immature continental crust in the Junggar area, which is mainly composed of Neoproterozoic‐Ordovician oceanic crust and weakly metamorphosed covering sedimentary rocks. The Late Paleozoic tectonism and mineralization were developed on the basement of the Early Paleozoic immature continental crust. The Junggar metallogenic province is dominated by Cr, Cu, Ni and Au mineralization. Those large and medium‐scale deposits are mainly distributed along the deep faults and particularly near the ophiolitic mélange zones, and formed in the Late Paleozoic with the peak of mineralization occurring in the Carboniferous‐Permian post‐collisional stage. The intrusions related to Cu, Ni and Au mineralization generally have low Isr and positive ɛENd(t) values. The δ34S values of the ore deposits are mostly near zero, and the lead isotopes are mostly of normal lead. All these indicate that the ore‐forming material comes either directly from the mantle‐derived magma (for chromite and Cu‐Ni deposits) or from recirculation of the basement material of the Early Paleozoic immature crust (for most Cu and Au deposits).