The principal antimony concentration areas in China and their resource potentials

Abstract：Antimony is one of the dominant minerals in China, which was listed as the first global shortage minerals by British Geological Survey in 2011. In this paper, based on the mineral resource potential assessment project, in combination with data available and grade III metallogenic belt research, the authors summarized the characteristics of antimony resources in China and preliminarily assigned antimony deposits in China to 13 large ore concentration areas, with a brief description of their geological characteristics. Meanwhile, based on the existing data and new advances in the exploration of antimony deposits in recent years, this paper makes a comment on the metallogenic characteristics of the six most important antimony ore concentration areas with an analysis of their resource potentials. The authors hold that there are still some blank areas for working as well as some potential prospecting areas around the known mines. The new prospecting direction is also pointed out.