Paleozoic Geodynamics and Gold Deposits in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan Excursion Guidebook

The IGCP-Project #373 on “Correlation, Anatomy and Magmatic-Hydrothermal Evolution of Ore-Bearing Felsic Igneous Systems in Eurasia”, supported through IUGS-UNESCO and IGCP for the period 1997-2001, was invited for its 5th annual field conference 2001 to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Previous IGCP-373 field campaigns have studied the relationship of geodynamic evolution, magmatism and mineralization in the adjacent parts of the Altaids orogenic collage, i.e. Central and Southern Kazakhstan (Bekzhanov et al., 1997), the South and Central Tien Shan of Uzbekistan (Shayakubov et al., 1999), the Southern Urals of Russia (Seltmann et al., 2000). As a consequence, studies of the Kyrgyz Tien Shan are important in understanding the Central Asian gold belt as forming the southern part of the Altaids. During the period 16-25 August 2001 about 50 project participants of IGCP-373 from 18 countries met in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan to carry out joint field work and to examine a number of world-class gold deposits in their geological framework. The topic of the meeting “Paleozoic geodynamics and gold deposits in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan ” included a conference with an introduction into the geology and metallogeny of Kyrgyzstan and provided a forum to discuss in the field academic as well as prospecting and exploration aspects of the geodynamic, magmatic and metallo-genic evolution of the Tien Shan.