Based upon a comprehensive study of 123 copper deposits in China. this paper reaches the following conclusions: 1. The crust in China was solidified pretty late; with the accretion of the plate, the copper mineralization moved towards its margin in space and became successively younger in age. 2. The major copper ore types ever found in the world have mostly been discovered in China, in which the porphyry type seems to be the most important and the massive sulfide type in the transitional bed between marine clastic and carbonate rocks is clearly defined. 3. Carbonate strata are widespread in China and their deposition lasted for a long geological period, so the proportion of copper deposits occurring in them is large as compared with other parts of the world. 4. Seven metallogenic epochs can be recognized, in which the Mesozoic one plays the leading role and the middle(late) Palaeozoic and Cenozoic ones are next in importance. Mineralization was comparatively simple in the early geological period. and became diversified later on. In the early epochs copper deposits related to basaltic magmatism and metamorphosed marine sediments predominated, whereas in the later epochs those related to granitic magmatism and continental sedimentation were dominant. 5. There exist in China thirteen metallogenic provinces, of which the Lower Yangtze downwarping belt, Sanjiang fold system, Jiangnan axis and Xikang-Yunnan axis are of greater significance. 6. The crustal mobility in China was rather pronounced, the polycyclic evolution of the crust has resulted in such obvious phenomena as the inheritance of mineralization, the coexistence of various types and the superposition of different genetic types.
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