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South-east Asian Tin-Tungsten Belt, Thailand, Myanma/Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia
Malaysia
Main commodities: Sn W


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The South-east Asian Tin Belt occupies a broadly arcuate zone extending south-wards from north-western Thailand and eastern Myanma/Burma, along the border between those two countries, through peninsular Malaysia to the Indonesian islands of Singkep, Bangka and Belitung.   This belt represents a distinct metallogenic province that during the twentieth century yielded around 75% of the world's tin supply.

Most of that production has been from alluvial and eluvial deposits.

Regional Setting

  The Thai-Malaysia Peninsular has been divided into two main regional domains, the Gondwana-derived Sibumasu (Western) and the Indochina-related Manabor (Eastern) terranes, separated by a major shear zone the Raub-Bentong Suture Zone. This division is also evident to the north into northern Myanma, and southward into Indonesia.
  The Sibumasu Terrane includes parts of western Yunnan in China (the Baoshan and Tenchong Blocks), the Shan States of Myanmar, northwest Thailand, Peninsular Myanmar and Thailand, western Peninsular Malaysia and northwest Sumatra (Metcalfe, 1988). In western Malaysia and Thailand, this terrane has traditionally been divided into the "Western Stable Shelf" and the "Main Range Belt", with the boundary between the two belts being generally north-south, passing through Penang (Hutshison, 1977). The Western Stable Shelf is characterised by Lower and Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary formations, which are gently folded, and generally unmetamorphosed. Granite is not abundant in this tectonic zone, but where present, the country rock is metamorphosed to spotted hornfels containing incipient chiastolite (Miskin,1964), while limestone in contact with the granite is characterised by a strong development of vesuvianite and garnet in a skarn zone (Hutchison, 1973). Outside of the aureole, the country rocks are completely unmetamorphosed (Foo, 1964).
  The Main Range Belt is characterised by the huge Main Range Batholith whose axis forms the mountain range extending from the region of Malacca/Melaka in the south, and northwards into southern Thailand. The country rocks of the Main Range granite are predominantly of isoclinally folded phyllitic Lower Palaeozoic metasedimentary rocks including marble, and less strongly folded Upper Palaeozoic formations. Because of the phyllitic nature of the country rocks, no broad contact aureoles have been seen and the contact zones usually exhibit only a very local increase of dynamothermal metamorphic grade. In most cases no increase of metamorphism is discernible at the contact (Hutshison, 1977).
  Peninsular Malaysia to the east of the Bentong-Raub Suture, has a different pre-Jurassic tectonostratigraphy and evolution to the Sibumasu terrane, and is regarded as a southwards extension of the Indochina Terrane (Metcalfe, 1998). This terrane is bounded to the NE by the Song Ma Suture Zone in Indochina, and to the west by the Uttaradit Nan-Sra Kaeo and Bentong-Raub sutures in Thailand and Malaysia, respectively. It is taken to include what has previously been referred to as the "East Malayasia Block" (excepting Borneo) of Stauffer (1974, 1983) and Metcalfe (1988) and the "Central Graben" of Hutshison (1977).
  The Bentong-Raub Suture zone represents remnant segments of the main Devonian to Middle Triassic Palaeotethys ocean. In Peninsular Malaysia, it has traditionally been recognised as an ~20 km wide zone bordering the eastern limit of the Main Range granitoids and comprises mélange, oceanic ribbon-bedded cherts, schist, and discontinuous, narrow, elongate bodies of serpentinised mafic-ultramafic rocks, interpreted as ophiolites (Hutchison, 1975, 1989; Tjia, 1987, 1989). Palaeotethyan oceanic ribbon-bedded cherts, preserved in the suture zone, range in age from Middle Devonian to Middle Permian, with mélanges that includes chert and limestone clasts that range in age from Lower Carboniferous to Lower Permian. These rocks are taken to indicate that the Palaeotethys ocean opened during the Devonian, when the Indochina and Chinese blocks separated from Gondwana. According to Metcalfe (2000), tectonostratigraphic, palaeobiogeographic and palaeomagnetic data indicate that the Sibumasu Terrane subsequently separated from Gondwana as a microcontinental sliver in the late Sakmarian (early Permian), and then drifted rapidly northwards during the Permo-Triassic, away from Gondwana, towards the Indochina Terrane (Metcalfe, 2000; 2006). The Bentong-Raub Suture is taken to be the result of northwards subduction of the Palaeotethys ocean beneath Indochina in the Late Palaeozoic, and the Triassic collision (and underthrusting) of the Sibumasu Terrane with the Indochina-East Malay Block (Metcalfe, 2000; 2006).
  During the Permian subduction phase, the East Malaysia volcano-plutonic arc, with I-Type granitoids and intermediate to acidic volcanism, was accreted to the margin of the Indochina Terrane (Metcalfe, 2000; 2006).
  The main structural discontinuity in Peninsular Malaysia is between Palaeozoic and Triassic rocks, with orogenic deformation apparently initiated in the Upper Permian to Lower Triassic, when Sibumasu began to collide with Indochina. During the Early to Middle Triassic, A-Type (i.e., continent-continent) subduction and crustal thickening generated the Main Range S-type syn- to post-orogenic granites, which range from Late Triassic (230±9 Ma) to earliest Jurassic (207±14 Ma) in age.
  The suture zone, is covered by a latest Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, mainly continental, western overlap sequence (Metcalfe, 2000; 2006) of the "Central Graben" of Hutshison (1977). The suture zone marks the boundary between the "Main Range belt", and the main "Central Graben", and appears to represent relaxation and extension following the collision of the Gondwana-related Sibumasu and the Indochina-related Manabor terranes.
  The "Central Graben" is characterised by gently folded Triassic and younger Mesozoic sedimentary formations, with common pyroclastic intercalations, underlain by more strongly folded Permian rocks. The sedimentary environment changed in the Late Triassic from marine to continental. The "Central Graben" is largely devoid of granitic rocks, except along a narrow line through Gunung Benom and Gunung Stong which is marked by granites and gneiss domes as well as a variety of uplifted high-grade metamorphic rocks. Jaafar (1976) has described rhyolites and porphyries along this line which are strongly sodic and of uncertain age. Elsewhere in the Central Graben, the sedimentary rocks s are characteristically unmetamorphosed (Gobbett and Hutchison, 1973).
  To the east, the "Central Graben" is separated from the "East Malayasia Block" by the Lebir Fault and its southern extensions. This is not as major a tectonic feature as the Bentong-Raub suture, although to the north, a significant ignimbrite dyke has been intruded along fault zone (Aw, 1967), and serpentinite occurs in the zone at the Bukit Ibam mine in DIu Rompin (Hutshison, 1977 after Jaafar, pers. comm.).
  The country rocks to the east of the "Central Graben" comprise sedimentary formations with associated pyroclastic and volcanic rocks of acid to intermediate composition. The granites are characteristically surrounded by prominent contact metamorphic aureoles up to 3 km wide superimposed on unmetamorphosed and fossiliferous country rocks (Yeap, 1966; Au, 1974; Goh, 1973). Continental Mesozoic overlap formations locally unconformably overlie both the granites and the Palaeozoic formations. Triassic sub-aerial rhyolitic flows and ignimbrite of this sequence occur along the southeast coast (Grubb, 1968). Although the country rocks of the "Eastern Belt" are generally unmetamorphosed in Malaysia, outside of the contact aureoles, the coastal outcrops extending from Trengganu to South Johor are strongly folded and phyllitic (Hutshison, 1977).
  Traditionally, Peninsular Malaysia has been divided into a Western Tin Belt (west of the Bentong-Raub Suture) corresponding to the main Range Batholith, a Central Gold Zone (including the suture zone and eastern Manabor Terrane of the "Central Graben") to the NNW-SSE trending Lebir Fault Zone, and the "Eastern Tin Belt" occupying the remainder of the eastern peninsular to the east of the Lebir Fault and its southern extensions (e.g., Hutshison, 1977).

  Based on ages of cassiterite and wolframite samples from tin deposits in southern Myanmar, Zhang et al. (2021) define three epochs of Sn metallogeny related to three contrasting geodynamic settings: i). Early Cretaceous (~125 to 110 Ma) mineralisation is related to post-collision slab break-off after collision between the West Burma terrane and the Sibumasu-Tengchong terrane; ii). Late Cretaceous to Paleocene (~90 to 60 Ma) mineralisation developed in an Andean-type accretionary setting during subduction of the Neotethys oceanic lithosphere; iii). Early Eocene (~50 to 40 Ma) mineralisation may have formed in a post-collision setting after the India-Asia collision. These three epochs correspond to the Coastal, Central and Frontier belts from the west to the east, that make up the Western Granitoid Province of the South-east Asian Tin Belt which is largely restricted to Myanmar, as described by Zhao et al. (2023) below.
  Mao et al. (2022), using a broader data set, also recognised three episodes of Sn mineralisation in the Western tin belt of Southeast Asia. However, this included an earlier episode, whilst the last two epochs of Zhang et al. (2021) were combined. They suggest these episode formed during the closure of multiple Tethys oceans, and comprised: i). Late Triassic (~218 Ma) mineralisation in a collisional setting after closure of the Palaeotethys, ii). Early Cretaceous (~124 to 107 Ma) mineralisation during subduction of the Mesotethys, and iii). Late Cretaceous to Eocene (~90 to 42 Ma) mineralisation related to the Neotethys subduction. Recurrent Sn mineralisation is recorded not only in the Western tin belt but also in the Central and Eastern tin belts in Southeast Asia.

However, Zhao et al. (2023) sub-divides the Southeast Asian tin belt as a whole into three granitoid provinces after Mitchell, 1977, 2018; Searle et al., 2016), and supersedes the grouping of Mao et al. (2022), namely the:
i). Eastern Granitoid Province, which consists predominantly of I-type granites with ages of from 289 to 220 Ma, related to the eastward subduction of the Palaeotethys (Mitchell, 1977, 2018; Ng et al., 2015);
ii). Main Range Granitoid Province, predominantly S-type granites with ages ranging from 227 to 201 Ma and formed in a post-collisional setting after the closure of the Palaeotethys Ocean (Mitchell, 1977, 2018; Hutchison and Taylor, 1978; Liu et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2020).
iii). Western Granitoid Province, with a mixture of I-, A- and S-type granites of mainly Cretaceous to Cenozoic ages, related to the subduction and closure of the Meso- and Neotethys oceans (Mitchell et al., 2012; Crow and Zaw, 2017; Jiang et al., 2017). Whilst the two other provinces, which are within Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, are Sn dominant, the western province, predominantly in Myanmar, contains both Sn and W.

Primary Deposits

The Thai-Malay Tin-Tungsten Belt extends for some 3500 km from the Shan States of Northern Myanmar to Belitung Island in Indonesia. Tungsten mineralisation is more significant in the northern portions of the belt while only tin is found to the south of the Thai-Malaysian border.
  The belt is cut by three zones of tin-bearing granitic intrusions, as described above, younging from the east to the west, each corresponding to a tin belt. These comprise a string of Permo-Triassic high level granites which are found in eastern Malaysia, to the east of the "Central Graben". To the west of the same tectonic feature and the Bentong-Raub Suture, Late Triassic deep-seated granitic rocks occur in the Indonesian "tin islands" (e.g., Banka and Belitung", in west coast Malaysia, and in western Thailand. Further west, in the "Western stable shelf", less extensive Cretaceous granites are mapped in southern Thailand and along the Burmese-Thai border. These appear to continue south and represent the granites in Sumatra.
  The great majority of the tin production of the belt is from alluvial deposits. These deposits appear to have been derived from discrete small cassiterite bearing quartz vein swarms and disseminations within the margins of the granite batholiths of the region.
  Primary deposits such as the cross-cutting cassiterite bearing quartz veins of Sungei Lembing and the stratabound sulphide and/or magnetite deposits of Laboo in southern Thailand, Manson Lode (see East Coast Malaysia record), Bukit Besi, Machang Setahun and Pelepah Kanan of east coast Malaysia and Kelapa Kampit on Belitung Island have not contributed substantially to the region's tin production.
  Tungsten mineralisation is largely present as primary deposits comprising a small number of substantial deposits and a larger number of small vein type occurrences. Khao Soon, which is one of the largest deposits, is in southern peninsula Thailand and is a ferberite occurrence hosted by quartz veins and the enclosing sediments within a shale-quartzite sequence. The other significant tungsten mine in Thailand is Doi Mok, which is described as a "skarn type" scheelite deposit in limestone. The Mawchi deposit in Myanmar, which comprises a cassiterite wolframite-scheelite bearing quartz lode system largely within a granitic host is, or rather has been, the other major tin-tungsten producer of the region. The Kanbauk ~54 Ma, Eocene, Sn-W skarn hosted deposit is located in southern Myanmar, within the Sn and W bearing Western Granitoid Province of the belt, and is one of the largest such deposits within the South-east Asian Tin Belt.

Secondary Deposits

The great majority of the tin produced has been from alluvial deposits in a small number of districts. The largest of these is the Kinta Valley of western Malaysia. Bangka Island in Indonesia is the next most significant, followed by the Kuala Lumpur area of west coast Malaysia. The Phuket-Phang Nga area of southern peninsular Thailand is the fourth largest, followed by Belitung Island in Indonesia, and the east coast of Malaysia. These latter two areas have had significant contributions from primary tin deposits.
  Other significant alluvial fields are on Singkep in Indonesia, in north western Malaysia and contiguous south eastern peninsular Thailand and south western peninsular Myanma/Burma.
  The majority of these alluvial deposits appear to be related to primary sources comprising limited small cassiterite bearing quartz vein swarms or disseminations near the margin of granites of each of the main belts.

For detail see the reference(s) listed below and separate records on individual deposits and tin belts.

The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 1985.    
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd.   Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.


  References & Additional Information
   Selected References:
Hosking, K.F.G.,  1977 - Known relationships between the hard-rock tin deposits and the granites of Southeast Asia: in    Geological Society of Malaysia,   Bulletin 9, pp. 141-157
Jackson, K.J. and Helgeson, H.C.,  1984 - Chemical and thermodynamic constraints on the hydrothermal transport and deposition of tin. I. Calculation of the solubility of cassiterite at high pressures and temperatures: in    Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta   v. 49, pp. 1-22,
Jackson, K.J. and Helgeson, H.C.,  1985 - Chemical and thermodynamic constraints on the hydrothermal transport and deposition of Tin: II. Interpretation of phase relations in the southeast Asian Tin belt: in    Econ. Geol.   v80 pp 1365-1378
Mao, W., Zhong, H., Yang, J., Liu, L., Fu, Y., Zhang, X., Tang, Y., Li, J., Zhang, L., Kyaingh, S., Aung, S.M., Paw, S.M.T.L. and Doh, S.H.,  2022 - Geochronology of Sn mineralization in Myanmar: metallogenic implications: in    Econ. Geol.   v.117, pp. 1387-1403.
Schwartz M O, Askury A K  1989 - Geologic, geochemical, and fluid inclusion studies of the Tin granites from the Bujang Melaka Pluton, Kinta Valley, Malaysia: in    Econ. Geol.   v84 pp 751-779
Zhang, Q., Zhao, K.-D., Li, W.-Q., Palmer, M.A., Jiang, S.-Y., Jiang, H., Zhang, W., Zhang, D. and Hussain, A.,  2021 - Timing and tectonic setting of tin mineralization in southern Myanmar: constraints from cassiterite and wolframite U-Pb ages: in    Mineralium Deposita   v.57, pp. 977-999.


Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge.   It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published.   While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants:   i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and   ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.

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