Exploration prospect and post-ore denudation in the northwestern Jiaodong Gold Province,China: Evidence from apatite fission track thermochronology.

Many ore deposits underwent different spatial changes after formation.Post-ore change and preservation is very important to ore deposit exploration.Regional uplift and denudation are critical factors controlling post-ore change and preservation of ore deposits.Tectono-thermochronology is an effective way to study regional uplift and denudation,quantitatively providing denudation rate and degree.This paper focused on gold deposits and host rock(Linglong granite) in the northwestern Jiaodong Gold Province,China.Apatite Fission Track(AFT) thermochronology was used to evaluate uplift and denudation history of Linglong granite since 110Ma.The results show that denudation rates are very small,with an average of 0.0303±0.0044mm·a-1,suggesting that the post-ore tectono-thermal event is gentle and very beneficial to ore preservation.According to granite denudation rate,the erosion depth was calculated 2.0~4.2km,far less than the largest mineralization depths mainly concentrated on 4~10km.Considering that the current depth of exploration and mining is less than 2km,the space with deep gold exploration and prospecting is promising.