Abstract:

 The South China continent including the Yangtze Block and the Cathaysia Block is an uncommon worldclass polymetallic metallogenic province with great oreforming potential. The formation and evolution of the South China continent had undergone specific intracontinental dynamic processes, in which the Late Permian plumerelated metallogenic system, the Mesozoic huge lowtemperature metallogenic system and the metallogenic system of the Mesozoic great granite province are quite distinctive in the world. Thus, the South China continent becomes an ideal international base for studying the intracontinental mineralization. The studies, in various levels, of how the continental dynamic processes over different geological time control the mineralization in the South China continent have been carried out and have had important achievements. On the basis of these studies, this paper presents the major scientific questions for further research on the three metallogenic systems.

Key words:  South China continent, intracontinental metallogeny, plumerelated metallogenic system, huge lowtemperature metallogenic system, great granite province metallogenic system