Abstract:

Abstract: The mineral deposits hosted in black rock series are important objects in the study of economic geology. Their origin is debatable because the mineralization is complex. In order to provide new reference information for understanding the complexity and shedding some light on the controversy, the origins of the mineral deposits were reviewed by analyzing worldwide representative examples thoroughly, and the future research directions are further suggested based on these results. It is showed that the mineral deposits have a wide occurrence. The formation of the deposits was influenced by multiple factors, which can be summarized into three main types, i. e., sea water, hydrothermal and bioorganic mineralizations. The sea and hydrothermal waters provide elements for the mineralization and favorable mineralizing conditions such as a reducing depositional environment. By contrast, the bioorganic mineralization is mainly the enriching of elements provided by sea and/or hydrothermal waters. The deposits were formed under favorable conditions. These three types of mineralizations resulted in the complexity of ore genesis. This is one of the important reasons that lead to the uncertainty of the origin of many deposits. Two future research directions are suggested. One is to reveal the multiple mineralization stages and complex process. The other is to study the bioorganic mineralization.

Key words: mineral deposits hosted in black rock series, bioorganic mineralization, sea water mineralization, hydrothermal mineralization