Abstract: Tin is one of traditional dominant mineral resources in China. However in recent years, we are faced with shortage of potential tin mineral prospecting area and uncertainty in prospecting direction, thus further geological and metallogenic studies on tin resources potential are urgently needed to provide a reference point for future geological prospecting work. In this paper, using mineral deposit model and comprehensive geological information prediction method, we performed comprehensive analyses of tin resources prediction data from various provinces with MapGIS platform. Based on the statistical analysis of 893 tin mineral occurrences, the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of tin deposit and orecontrol factors such as magmatites, tectonics and strata were summarized. Forty four tin ore metallogenic belts were delineated according to tectonic units and locations of tin deposits and prospective areas. The prediction types of tin deposit were classified into quartz vein, cassiteritesulfide, skarn, greisen, Pegmatite, volcanic and placer types, and prediction model was established for the main types. In total, 1179 minimum prospective areas were delineated nationwide, with a cumulative predicted tin metal resources of 18.61 million tons. According to the regional metallogenic characteristics, minimum prospective areas were merged into 405 levelII prospective areas, which were further combined into 109 levelIII prospective areas. Five of the levelIII prospective areas, including XianghualingQianlishan and TashanDayishan areas in Hunan Province, Gejiu and BozhushanDulong areas in Yunnan Province and Huangganglian area in Inner Mongolia, were selected as the priority exploration areas. Our prediction results also showed that great resource potential still exists at 500 m depth, therefore, tin prospecting work should focus on both deep and shallow mineralization. Thus, tin exploration should not only pay attention to the periphery of old mines, but also to new territories in overlay areas and nontraditional resources type tin deposits.

Key words:  tin deposit, metallogenic geological features, mineral resources potential assessment, China