Contributions of secular changes in the regional evolution of ore deposits to predictive mineral exploration: A case study of the Zhongtiao Mountain Cu metallogenic area, southern North China Craton

• The article translates the processes of ore formation into mappable features with available data.
• The article establishes a mineral accumulation evaluation model for ore prospecting.
• The article delineates four Cu accumulation horizons for mineral exploration.

The Zhongtiao Mountain is located in the southern part of the North China Craton. The area experienced multi-stage tectono-magmatic events during the Precambrian, including Neoarchean-Early Paleoproterozoic (2550–2350 Ma) crustal growth, Paleoproterozoic (2350–1850 Ma) rifting–subduction–accretion–collision, and Early Mesoproterozoic (1800–1750 Ma) extension. The geological events contributed to a major copper mineral system in the region. Here we evaluate the processes of the mineral system, such as the source of metals, migration pathways, the formation of trap zones, and the deposition of metal in an attempt to establish a mineral accumulation evaluation model for regional ore prospecting. A three-step process has been proposed in this study as follows. (i) Determining the spatial and temporal distribution of the essential elements and processes of the mineral system to understand the most critical ore-controlling factors. (ii) Translating the ore-forming processes into mappable features and quantitative extraction of the information on mineralization using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to establish a mineral accumulation evaluation model. They were treated as evidence layers for weight-of-evidence (WofE) analysis. (iii) Utilizing the weighted values of the evidence layers to create a posterior probability map. Based on the posterior probabilities, four mineral accumulation horizons were finally delineated for the Zhongtiao Mountain, which are considered to provide important guidelines for further ore exploration and study.