The Discovery of Scheelite from the Copper Deposit in the Zhongtiaoshan Area and Its Implication for Tungsten Ore Prospecting in North China

In the past, the Zhongtiaoshan area was one of the main places to find copper deposits in China. Although there was a tungsten anomaly in geochemical exploration, no tungsten ore had been discovered, and the tungsten ore resource has not drawn much attention. During the study of the Bayi copper deposit, scheelite was discovered and confirmed in copper-bearing veins by field fast X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) analyzer, fluorescent lamp, optical microscope and electron probe. The associated minerals of scheelite include chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galenite, and the gangue minerals are mainly composed of calcite, dolomite and quartz. The genesis of the Bayi copper deposit was considered preliminary as a mantle-derived magmatic hydrothermal fluid when examined by electron probe analysis of the scheelite, sulfides and gangue minerals and C stable isotopic compositions. The discovery of scheelite in the Bayi copper deposit veins is not only important for the further study of regional tungsten metallogenic regularity in China, but also helpful for tungsten prospecting in the Zhongtiaoshan area.