Formation characteristics and prospecting direction of magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits in China

The distribution of magmatic Ni-Cu deposits related with mafic-ultramafic magma of mantle sources is imbalance in the Earth owing to different deep mantle dynamics mechanism. Especially the imbalance distribution of Ni-Cu deposits in China, most of them were located mainly in interplate or the margin of plates. In order to understand formation characteristics of magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits in China and definite the prospecting direction of magmatic Ni-Cu deposits, the typical magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits were analyzed comprehensively and found that these deposits formed basicly in the late New Proterozoic, late Early Paleozoic and late Late Paleozoic. And all of them grew unexceptionally in the interplate or the margin of plate and it’s the result of multi-stages magmatic emplacement after immiscibling magma. This paper gives a systematic study of deep process of magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits and useful ore-formation information of geology, geophysics, geochemistry and remote sensing. Combining with newly prospecting progress on ore-search breakthrough, the result shows that Northwestern China is a very important ore-forming potential area for magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits and the margin of stable craton is still a main prospecting direction for magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits.