Yunnan platinum, China

Field party in July 2007 at the Lancangjiang (Mekong River) south of Jinghong
Boulder sampling in the Nanlianshan intrusion

The 258 Ma Emeishan flood basalt province in southern China (Sichuan, Yunnan) hosts several vanadium-titanium and PGE (platinum-group element) mineral deposits. The southern part of the Emeishan province is affected by large-scale Himalayan strike slip tectonics which has displaced some of the Emeishan members along the Ailaoshan/Red River fault zone, probably up to northwestern Vietnam. A similar major fault zone is the Lancangjiang zone 100-200 km SW of the Ailaoshan zone. We study several mafic-ultramafic intrusions from the Lancangjiang zone which are very little known. Focus is on the area between Jinghong and the Burmese border, and on the Banpo intrusion. The rocks are petrographically and chemically characterized, plus U-Pb dating on zircon, and bulk-rock Ar-Ar dating. The tectonomagmatic interpretation will allow an estimate of the regional exploration potential.
 
(BGR project 01/2006, in cooperation with Yunnan Geological Survey and University of Hongkong)

  • Hennig D, Lehmann B, Frei D, Belyatsky B, Zhao XF, Cabral AR, Zeng PS, Zhou MF, Schmidt K (2009): Early Permian seafloor to continental arc magmatism in the eastern Paleo-Tethys: U–Pb age and Nd–Sr isotope data from the southern Lancangjiang zone, Yunnan, China
    Lithos 113: 408–422