China is a large country with approximately 9.6 million square kilometers of land area that is rich in mineral resources. It is the major producer of many metals. For the 40 metals (rare earth elements and platinum group elements [REE and PGE] counted as one each) regularly reported in the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries with production and some reserves data, China was in the top four global producers for 32 in 2018 (Table 1, summarized from U.S. Geological Survey, 2019). These include As, Au, Bi, Cd, Ga, Ge, Hg, In, Mg, Mo, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, Te, Ti, total REE oxides, V, W, Y, and Zn, all for which China is the largest producer; bauxite and Be (2 nd larg- est producer); Ag, Fe ore, Li, Sr, and Zr (3 rd largest producer), and K, Mn, Re, and Ta (4 th largest producer). In addition, China is also the largest producer of a number of industrial minerals such as granite, wollastonite, barite, and sulfur (U.S. Geological Survey, 2019). Where reserves data are available, China also has the world’s largest reserves of Mo, Se, Sn, Te, REE, and V (Table 1). China is host to most major mineral deposit types, including Cu ± Au ± Mo porphyry deposits (Yang and Cooke, 2019); Sn, W, Cu, Zn-Pb, Mo, Au, Ag, Fe, B, Sb, and U skarn deposits (Chang et al., 2019); W and Sn grei- sen deposits (Mao et al., 2019); high-, intermediate- and low- sulfdation epithermal deposits (White et al., 2019); orogenic and possible Carlin-like Au deposits, some also mined for Sb (Deng et al., 2019; Goldfarb et al., 2019); sedimentary rock- hosted Zn, Pb, and Cu deposits (Leach and Song, 2019); mag- matic Ni-Cu-PGE deposits (Li et al., 2019); magmatic Cr, Fe, V, Ti, and P deposits; carbonatite-hosted REE deposits (Xie et al., 2019); kimberlite diamond deposits; pegmatite-hosted Be, Nb, Ta, and Li deposits; iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits (Zhao et al., 2019); volcanic-hosted massive sulfde (VHMS) deposits; banded iron formation (BIF)-hosted Fe deposits; sedimentary Mn deposits; bauxites; ion-adsorption REE deposits (Xie et al., 2019); and alluvial Au, Sn, Ti, REE, zircon, monazite, and xenotime deposits (Van Gosen et al., 2019; Xie et al., 2019). The numerous Chinese deposits, however, are not well known to the international community. The deposit descrip- tions are typically written in Chinese. English papers on Chi- nese deposits in readily accessible international journals only started to appear in reasonable quantity after about 2005. Insights drawn from these deposits are even rarer. Within China, a nationwide deposit summary was completed only once, which resulted in the publication of the book Mineral Deposits in China in three volumes in 1989 and 1994 in Chi- nese (Song, 1989, 1994a, 1994b). The chapters were orga- nized into 27 metal and industrial mineral commoditities with the description of a few hundred representative deposits. In 2013, Franco Pirajno published The Geology and Tectonic Settings of China’s Mineral Deposits. This was essentially an “encyclopedic” presentation that summarized many published characteristics of different ore deposits as they are presented in innumerable journal articles in the Western and Chinese literature, with deposits grouped into six chapters defned by their tectonomagmatic framework. This SEG Special Publication endeavors to summarize, interpret, and classify most of the major metallic mineral deposits in China refecting the main mineral deposit types. We attempt to introduce these deposits to the international economic geology community, and to improve and enrich the global understanding of each deposit type. Each deposit type chapter is written by a team consisting of at least one world expert and one Chinese expert on that type of deposit. These lengthy papers include and evaluate all relevant Chinese lit- erature and thereby stress the important features of the Chi- nese deposits. The collaboration between international and Chinese experts ensures that the documentation and inter- pretation provide a clear narrative, meet a high scientifc stan- dard, and are set in a global context. Each chapter has a data table summarizing the major geological characteristics of each deposit, either in the chapter or as an electronic appendix. In addition, Xiao et al. (2019) summarize the varied tectonic settings and the geological evolution of China, and Deng et al. (2019) document the temporal and spatial distribution of major Chinese deposits relative to their geodynamic settings. For a clear understanding of China’s minerals industry, Feng (2019) provides an overview of industry practices in China, and Crowe (2019) documents the experience of a successful exploration and mining operation by an international com- pany in China. The geology of 1,303 important deposits is summarized within the various chapters. They include 397 skarn, 225 placer, 217 orogenic gold, 130 ion absportion REE, 69 sediment- hosted Zn-Pb-Cu, 64 porphyry, 58 greisen and/or vein W-Sn, 57 epithermal deposits, 27 REE deposits of unknown type, 22 carbonatite REE, 14 Ni-Cu-PGE, 10 pegmatite, six carbon- ate replacement, six IOCG deposits, and one U-related REE deposit hosted in volcanic rocks. The distribution of these deposits is shown in Figure 1, except for the 200 beach sand deposits, for which locations are shown in the heavy mineral ©2019 Society of Economic Geologists, Inc. SEG Special Publications, no. 22, pp. 1–11 Chapter 1 Mineral Deposits of China: An Introduction Zhaoshan Chang 1,2 and Richard J. Goldfarb 1,3 1 Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80005, USA 2 EGRU (Economic Geology Research Centre) and Academic Group of Geosciences, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia 3 State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China † Corresponding authors: e-mail, chang@mines.edu, rjgoldfarb@mac.com doi: 10.5382/SP.22.01; 11 p. 1