In recent years, nation-widemineral exploration
activities are now concentrating on concealed deposits in regolithcovered
terrains. Particularly in the new century, interest was kindled
by the discoveries of the large porphyry copper deposits and large
sandstone-type uranium deposits in Gobi desert terrains extending
from northern China northward into Mongolia. For example the large
copper porphyry deposit located at Tuwu in the Eastern Tianshan Gobi
(Fig. 1) (Wang et al., 2007a), the large copper and gold porphyry deposits
located at Oyuu Tolgoi, about 80 km from the Chinese border
into Mongolia (www.ivanhoe-mines.com) and large sandstone-type
uranium deposits at the Turpan–Hami Basin (Quan and Li, 2002) and
at Ordos Basin (Dahlkamp, 2009).