Cenozoic tectonic movement and its relationship with gold mineralization in the northern segment of the Garzê-Litang fault belt

Abstract: The Garzê-Litang fault belt has experienced a series of complex evolutionary processes since the Paleozoic and is a large-scale, structurally complex ophiolitic mélange belt that has been strongly reworked and dismembered by overthrusting and sinistral strike-slip shear during the Cenozoic Himalayan orogeny. Gold mineralization is mainly associated with overthrusting, strike-slip motion of the fault belt and post-mineralization supergene oxidationn during the Himalayan orogeny. Hydrothermal activity is widely developed along the fault belt, showing that modern hydrothermal mineralization is just taking place. The study of the regularity of the Himalayan tectonic movement is of great significance for mineral prospecting in the study area.