On December 12, the review and academic seminar for the research report on the tectonic evolution and mineralization of the South China Sea—Bering-Pacific region in the Huaxia metallogenic province were held in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. Academicians Chen Yuchuan and Chang Yinfo attended the event, while Academician Ren Jishun submitted written comments. More than 30 experts and scholars from institutions including the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences participated in the meeting. The meeting heard a report on the project’s findings, and after careful review and discussion, the expert panel unanimously approved the report and rated it as “Excellent.”

　　It is understood that this project has received high attention from the Jiangxi Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. Led by Deputy Director Yu Zhongzhen and spearheaded by Yang Minggui, a recipient of the Li Siguang Award, the project involved more than 40 mid- and young-aged experts and took three years to complete. The study area spans eastern China and central-south China, covering nine provinces, three autonomous regions, and one municipality, with an area of approximately 100 square kilometers. The resulting report comprises 10 chapters totaling about 760,000 characters, featuring 480 illustrations and 15 tables. The report is rich in content, thoroughly documented, comprehensively organized, and abundantly illustrated with both text and figures. It meets the innovative requirements set forth in the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan Outline for Land and Resources" and represents a significant achievement in the field of regional geotectonic and regional mineralization studies.

　　The report for the first time delineates the “Huaxia Metallogenic Province” and its boundary, which lies in the intensely complex zone where the Paleo-South China Sea Metallogenic Domain and the Circum-Pacific Metallogenic Domain overlap. This province ranks among the most important metallogenic provinces along the Pacific Rim. It is divided into three major metallogenic zones (sub-provinces): Lower Yangtze, South Ling, and Zhejiang-Fujian. It encompasses several key metallogenic belts—including the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the eastern part of Jiangnan, and the Qinzhou-Hangzhou Belt—as well as 17 sub-belts, 77 significant ore clusters (belts) and ore fields. The report systematically summarizes the metallogenic conditions and characteristics at each hierarchical level. In particular, it focuses on revealing the complex geological evolution of the Qinzhou-Hangzhou Metallogenic Belt, which underwent a series of stages—from the Paleo-South China Sea to rift troughs, back-arc basins, residual rift troughs and shelf seas, to continental basins and plate collisions involving multiple large-scale oblique overlaps. This evolutionary process gave rise to an oblique lithospheric depression, a mixed zone of oceanic and continental crust, and multi-stage, multi-series magmatic-sedimentary-metamorphic metallogenic belts. The report also provides a systematic summary of the structural features of the Jinning Period South China Sea and its adjacent arc-basin system in southern China. For the first time, it proposes that the Paleo-South China Sea extended from Qinzhou Bay through the Honghe and Lancang River regions, thereby outlining the general configuration of the Paleo-South China Sea tectonic domain and offering new insights into the construction of the Paleo-South China Sea metallogenic domain.

　　The report proposes a tectonic framework for the Yangtze-Caledonian South China Rift System, with the Qinhang Rift as its central axis and the Nanhua Basin as its main body, complemented by two graben zones—the Wan-Zhe-Gan and the Xiang-Gui-Qian regions. It elucidates that during the Nanhua Interglacial Period and the post-glacial period, this rift system witnessed significant mineralization events involving iron, manganese, phosphorus, talc, uranium-bearing minerals, vanadium, and shale gas. The study also demonstrates that the intracontinental activation orogeny associated with the Yanshan Movement exhibited distinctive characteristics—“wide, long, strong, and deep”—and featured large-scale mineralization driven by a combination of two major magmatic series: “deep” and “shallow” sources. Furthermore, it puts forward a core-mantle-style expansion model for the regional magmatic mineralization burst centered on the Nanling Range, along with the evolutionary patterns of magmatic mineralization and the orogenic–creep-type dynamic mechanism, which differ significantly from the subduction model of the Pacific Plate and represent an important innovation. The report further clarifies that the intense extensional basin formation during the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene periods led to the development of abundant continental basin sedimentary deposits, as well as residual hydrothermal fluids (hot waters) containing uranium, fluorite, and other minerals left over from the Yanshan orogeny.

　　In addition, the report provides an integrated summary of the structural units, tectonic systems, and lithospheric structure of the study area, thereby advancing the integration of plate tectonics and tectonic systems. It points out that the Xinhuaxia tectonic system and the Yangtze (ancient Huaxia) anti-S-shaped tectonic system are the regionally dominant tectonic systems controlling rock formation, mineralization, and the ecological environment. Through a study of the four-dimensional spatiotemporal structures of 14 typical ore clusters and ore fields, a number of metallogenic models and exploration models have been established. Furthermore, a set of “root-seeking” strategies has been proposed for locating ore deposits whose roots have been lost due to faulting. A “three-multiple” metallogenic model—characterized by “multi-factor integration, multi-level architecture, and multi-stage progression”—has been developed, which holds both theoretical and practical significance for deep-oil exploration and prediction.