Insights into the skarn Cu mineralization processes of an intracontinental setting: A case study of the Xiaohekou deposit, southern Qinling Orogen, China

Traditional metallogenic models posit that porphyry–skarn Cu systems form in subduction and collision zones. However, in eastern China, many important Late Mesozoic porphyry–skarn deposits have formed in intracontinental settings related to lithospheric break-up during the celebrated tectonothermal, Yanshanian event. The Xiaohekou Cu skarn deposit in the southern Qinling Orogen presents an ideal case study to describe such ore deposit geology, using mineral and fluid inclusion analysis, in addition to sulfide and granitoid SPb isotope studies. A detailed metallogenic process model for the intracontinental skarn Cu deposit is proposed.