Mineralization: Evidence from Fission Track Thermochronology

Abstract

Ore deposits were the product of the Earth's material movement in a certain historical stage and tend to experience different forms and different degrees of change until being found, exploited and utilized. We should attach importance to conservation and changes of ore deposits besides metallogenic environment, ore deposit model and origin research. The conservation is closely related to uplifting and denudation so that to recover histories of uplifting and denudation for ore districts could reveal conservation and changes of mineral deposits. By applying fission track thermochronology, this chapter presents a research sample to discuss the issue, especially the relative technical method, and provides evidences for both deep ore prospecting and mineralizing potentiality evaluation. Meanwhile, dating mineralizing age is another frontier topic in the world. The author successfully applied fission track thermochronology to determining the mineralizing ages and epochs of the hydrothermal deposits. Steps and methods of achieving these goals are shown in detail. Geologists could take this chapter as a reference tool.