Geochemical data and zircon ages for rocks in a high-pressure belt of Chu-Yili Mountains, southern Kazakhstan: Implications for the earliest stages of accretion in Kazakhstan and the Tianshan

► New SHRIMP ages for garnet pyroxenite from Chu-Yili Mountains of South Kazakhstan reveal so far unknown early Paleozoic HP belt with a peak metamorphism at ∼490 Ma. ► Chemical composition of the garnet pyroxenite points at an ultramafic mantle protolith. Block-in-matrix structure of the belt implies exhumation in subductional channel. ► Upper Cambrian arc related granodiorite dated as 509 Ma delineates magmatic arc in the NE of the HP belt. ► The HP belt was formed in subductional and collisional setting due to convergence of Anrakhai arc and North Tianshan microcontinent with subduction towards the NE.