Yangliuping Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposit, Yangliuping dome, Danba Co., Garzê (Ganzi) Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China

Mafic-ultramafic sill intruding Devonian carbonaceous marble and graphitic schists in the center of the Yangliuping tectonic dome. The rocks have been modified by hydrothermal activity and now chiefly consist of serpentinite, talc schist, tremolite schist and meta-gabbro. Disseminated Cu-Ni-sulphide mineralization (with 0.2-2 g/t PGE), accounting for more than 95% of the ore reserves, occurs abundantly in the serpentinite in the lower parts of the sill. Massive sulphide minerals (with 1-8 g/t PGE) occur at the base of the sill and in the footwall along fractures beneath the mineralized serpentinite. Rarely, sulphides also occur in small, uneconomic veinlets, with quartz and calcite as gangue minerals.
Contact metamorphic minerals, including slender prismatic diopside and granular epidote or garnet, occur locally in marble near the boundaries of the sill.

Located about 30 km south of Danba.

References:
- Dunn, P.J., Chao, G.Y., Grice, J.D, Ferraiolo, J.A., Fleischer, M., Pabst, A., and Zilczer, J.A. (1985): New Mineral Names. American Mineralogist 69, 565-569.
- Deng, H.-L., Campbell, A.J., and Humayun, M. (2002): Platinum Group Elements in sulfides from Yangliuping Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd Deposit in Sichuan, China. Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2002, A177.
- Xieyan Song, Meifu Zhou, Zhimin Cao, Min Sun, and Yunliang Wang (2003): Ni-Cu-(PGE) magmatic sulfide deposits in the Yangliuping area, Permian Emeishan igneous province, SW China. Mineralium Deposita 38, 831-843.
- Yao, Y., and Viljoen, M.J. (2003): Intrusion-hosted PGE mineralization in the Sichuan province, China. Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2003, A560.

- http://www.wits.ac.za/geosciences/Research/EGRI/Circulars/pdf_files/358.pdf