1. Mineral Resources
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  3. Global assessment of undiscovred copper resources

Gobi-Amur

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Cambrian through Early Devonian igneous rocks that consist mostly of continental-margin arc rocks with some island-arc rocks at the eastern end; mostly covered by the Late Paleozoic Kazakh-Mongol Arc
Tract ID 142pCu8503
Country China-Mongolia-Russian Federation
Commodity Cu
Study area name Central Asia Orogenic Belt
Tectonic setting continental margin
Deposit type porphyry copper
Grade-tonnage model General porphyry copper model (Singer and others, 2008)
Geologic age
Geologic feature age Cambrian through Early Devonian
Generalized age Paleozoic
Oldest rocks age 542Ma
Youngest rocks age 397Ma
Age range 144Ma
Identified Cu resources 3,300,000metric tons
Known prospects 3
Mean Cu (t/sq km) 105t/sq km
Map scales used 1M

Results of the assessment

Assessment date 2013
Estimators Alexeiev, D. (Russian Academy of Sciences); Bookstrom, Arthur A.(USGS); Frost, Thomas P. (USGS); Hammarstrom, Jane M. (USGS); Light, Thomas D. (USGS); Ludington, Steve (USGS); Mihalasky, Mark, J. (USGS); Panteleyev, Andre (XDM Geological Consultants)
Assessment depth 1km
Quantitative assessment Yes

Estimated number of deposits

Number of deposits Confidence level
1 50%
3 10%
6 5%
6 1%
Mean estimated deposits 1.53 ±1.75 (1.15%)
Probability of mean 0.22
Probability of no copper 0.3

Estimated deposit density

Known
deposits		 Total
deposits		 Area
(sq km)		 Deposit density
per 100,000 sq km
1 2.53 56,087 5

Mean estimated tonnage

Copper 5,900,000
Molybdenum 170,000
Gold 150
Silver 2,000
Ore 1,200

Undiscovered copper resource

Confidence level 50% 10% 5%
Tonnage 1,100,000 14,000,000 26,000,000

Economic analysis

Fraser country Mongolia, China, and Russian Federation
Fraser type 0.08%
Fraser high 0.91%
Typical cost 0%
High cost 1%
Infrastructure setting High cost
Comments on depth deep
Expected depth distribution
0 - 250m 0.1
250m - 500m 0.3
500m - 1km 0.6
Economically recoverable resources
Copper 2,700,000t
Molybdenum 62,000t
Gold 45t
Silver 880t
Probability no econ recoverable 0.9
Econ NPV 440x $1M
Exp dollars 0.1x $1M/100,000 sq km
Exp value class Very Low

Bibliographic references

General Mihalasky, Ludington, Hammarstrom, and others (2015)
Economic Robinson and Menzie (2012)
Mihalasky, M.J., Ludington, Steve, Hammarstrom, J.M., Alexeiev, D.V., Frost, T.P., Light, T.D., Robinson, G.R., Jr., Briggs, D.A., Wallis, J.C., and Miller, R.J., with contributions from Bookstrom, A.A., Panteleyev, Andre, Chitalin, Andre, Seltmann, Reimar, Guangsheng, Y., Changyun, L., Jingwen, M., Jinyi, L., Keyan, X., Ruizhao, Q., Jianbao, S., Gangyi, S., and Yuliang, D., 2015, Porphyry Copper Assessment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and eastern Tethysides—China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and India: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–X, 106 p. and spatial data, http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20105090X.Robinson, G.R., Jr., and Menzie, W.D., 2012, Economic filters for evaluating porphyry copper deposit resource assessments using grade-tonnage deposit models, with examples from the U.S. Geological Survey global mineral resource assessment (ver 1.2, March 2014): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–H, 21 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5090/h/.

Deposits and prospects associated with this tract

Name Type State Country Development Details
Duobaoshan deposit Heilongjiang China Producer Details
He'ersai prospect Xinjiang China Prospect Details
Mengxi prospect Xinjiang China Prospect Details
Tongshan prospect Heilongjiang China Prospect Details