The Huangtun S-Fe-Au-Cu deposit, located in the northern margin of Luzong Basin, is a complex mineralization system. Before the discovery of Au-Cu ore body, the Huangtun deposit was mined as S-Fe deposit. The S-Fe ore bodies are discontinuous lenticular with the thickness between 20–100 m and confined to the unconformity between the sedimentary strata and volcanic rocks. The Au-Cu ore bodies mainly occur in the breccia pipe which was revealed by the drilling of No.14, No.18 and No.22 exploration lines. Based on the field observation, the breccia pipe crosscut the S-Fe ore bodies, suggesting that the early S-Fe mineralization is overprinted by the late Au-Cu mineralization. Recently, a new small-scale breccia pipe, revealed by the drilling of No.5 and No.7 exploration lines, was discovered in the northeastern section of the Huangtun deposit. Up to now, the S resources of the eastern sulfur ore body are 1.15 million tons, the total sulfur grade is 28.16%. The Au-Cu ore body is mainly hosted in the breccia pipe containing a reserve of over 13 tons Au at an average grade of 1.30 g/t and 0.06 million tons Cu at an average grade of 0.64%.

Recent exploration results indicate that Huangtun is a large Au–Cu deposit, containing estimated Au reserves of ∼ 20 t at an average grade of 1.12 g/t and a maximum grade of 180 g/t. Cu resources are estimated at ∼ 100,000 t, with an average grade of 0.6%. The basement sequence mainly comprises Triassic–Jurassic sedimentary rocks, including the Middle Triassic Dongma’anshan Formation (T2d) and Tongtoujian Formation (T2t), the Upper Triassic Lalijian Formation (T3l), and the Lower to Middle Jurassic Moshan (J1m) and Luoling (J2l) formations. The Dongma’anshan Formation is dominated by grayish-white dolomite, locally with clastic dolomite and evaporite-related collapse breccias. The Tongtoujian Formation consists mainly of purplish-red siltstone composed predominantly of fine-grained quartz and minor feldspar. The Lalijian Formation is characterized by quartz sandstone–siltstone assemblages, with grain size coarsening upward from fine to medium–fine. The Moshan and Luoling formations are widely distributed and consist mainly of quartz sandstone with interbeds of siltstone, mudstone, and local conglomerate. The alteration in the mining area can be divided into five zones: the albite alteration zone, K-feldspar alteration zone, biotite alteration zone, chlorite alteration zone, and clay mineral alteration zone. The ores are of breccia type and can be divided into trachyandesite-breccia ores and siltstone-breccia ores.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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