Abstract
The Xikuangshan mine is situated in central Hunan, China, and is the largest antimony deposit in the world. The mineralization is hosted in Middle-Upper Devonian carbonate rocks. Sm-Nd isotope analysis of six calcite samples and one stibnite sample gives an isochron age of 156.3±12 Ma. with an initial143Nd/144Nd ratio of 0.51164 and an εNd value of -15.6. This age demonstrates that the antimony mineralization probably took place during the Jurassic period, simultaneously with the folding events in the Xikuangshan district, which is consistent with the geological inferences of the mineralization age in central Hunan.
