Carlin-Type Gold Deposits in the Dian-Qian-Gui “Golden Triangle” of Southwest China

The Dian-Qian-Gui "Golden Triangle" area of southwest China has the second-largest concentration of Carlin-type gold deposits in the world, containing more than 800 tonnes of Au (25.7 Moz). All of the deposits are located along long-lived, deep-penetrating crustal structures inherited from Devonian rifting of the Precambrian Yangtze craton. They are hosted in Cambrian to Middle Triassic platform carbonate, transitional, and siliciclastic rocks of the Youjiang basin, and locally in Late Permian diabase intrusions or volcaniclastic rocks. These deposits have many characteristics in common with Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada, USA, including lithology of host rocks, alteration types, elemental associations, and occurrence of gold.