The Chinese continent is an important component part of Eurasia and a product of the global crustal movement and tectonic evolution. According to the plate tectonics, China is situated in the southeastern part of the Eurasian plate, adjoining the Pacific and Philippines plates on the east and the India plate on the south. It is just because the Chinese continent is located in the contiguous area of these big plates and is affected by several different geotectonic units that there have been created favorable geological-structural conditions for the formation of varied mineral resources.

According to the 1:4000000-scale Geotectonic Map of China compiled by Ren Jishun et al. under the direction of Prof. Huang Jiqing (T.K. Huang) (Fig. 1.3.1), China is divided into 25 major tectonic units, namely, the Sino-Korean paraplatform, Yangtze paraplatform, Tarim Platform, South China Sea platform, Ergun fold system, Altay fold system, Junggar fold system, Tianshan fold system, Inner Mongolia-Great Hinggan fold system, Jilin-Heilongjiang fold system, Qilian fold system, Qinling fold system, East Kunlun fold system, West Kunlun fold system, Songpan-Garz¨º fold system, Sanjiang (Nujiang, Lancang and Jinsha Rivers) fold system, Karakorum-Tanggula fold system, Gandis¨º-Nyainq¨ºntanglha fold system, Himalaya fold system, Upper Heilongjiang miogeosynclinal fold system, South China fold system, southeastern coastal fold system, Taiwan fold system, Yanbian fold system and Nadanhada eugeosynclinal fold system.

An important characteristic feature of the tectonic development history of China is the heterogeneity in tectonic mobility of the various terrains. Some terrains, e.g. the Sino-Korean paraplatform and the Tarim platform, have been in a more or less stable state for a long period of time, but some others, such as the immense Mesozoic-Cenozoic epicontinental mobile belt in the east, have shown a relatively high mobility of the crust. And there are still other terrains where the crust has exhibited a strong and weak alternating mobility.

Another important feature of the crustal development history of the Chinese continent lies in the polycyclicity of the crustal tectonic movement. The long development process of geohistory has witnessed the multiphase occurrence of extensive and intense, sometimes superimposed tectonic movements, such as the pre-L¨¹liangian, L¨¹liangian, Sibaoian, Junningian and Sinian movements in the Archean and Proterozoic periods, the Caledonian and Hercynian movements in the Paleozoic, the Indosinian and Yanshanian movements in the Mesozoic and the Himalayan movement in the Cenozoic. These tectonic movements played an extremely important role in the formation, evolution and development of the Chinese continent as well as in the formation of such a tectonic framework as it is today and the rich mineral resources in China. It is just these multiphase complicated tectonic movements that resulted in the formation of a series of mountain systems and hills, plateaus and basins, folds and faults, nappes and shear zones, and various geomorphological units and structural features of different types and orders and significantly promoted the mobilization, migration, concentration and accumulation of ore-forming matter and the formation of diversified mineral deposits. For instance, the large sedimentary basins formed in the process of the tectonic movements of the crust, such as the Songliao Basin, North China Basin, Ordos Basin, Sichuan Basin, Bohai Sea Basin, Yellow Sea Basin and South China Sea Basin offered favorable structural settings for the generation and accumulation of petroleum, natural gas and coal resources. Besides, a series of folded mountain systems and deep fractures created good structural prerequisites for the formation of many metallic mineral resources. Take for example, a series of nonferrous metallic ore deposits are controlled by the Sanjiang (Nujiang, Lancang and Jinsha Rivers) fracture belt in southwestern China; China's largest copper deposit is controlled by the Gandongbei (Northeast Jiangxi) deep fracture belt; China's largest metallogenetic zone of high-Al mineral resources is controlled by the Zhuxia fracture belt in the Nanyang area of Henan Province; the Tanlu (Tancheng-Lujiang) megafault played an important part in the formation of diamond and other mineral deposits in Shandong and Liaoning. Moreover, there occurred considerably intense as well as extensive Yanshanian tectonic faulting, magmatism, and magmatic intrusion and eruption in the marginal Pacific region of eastern China, thus creating superior structural settings for the formation of a series of gigantic mineral deposits of nonferrous metals of copper, molybdenum, tungsten, tin, lead, zinc, etc. in this region, particularly at the intersections of tectonic fractures formed by superimposition in different periods of geohistory. The specific controlling structures of oilfields, orefields and ore deposits are varied too. In the Songliao Basin, for instance, the presence of the Daqing long-wall structure has created advantageous structural conditions for the formation of the Daqing oilfield. Besides, some large gold ore deposits in the Jiaodong area of Shandong and other areas of China all belong to the fracture zone altered rock type, whereas the formation of fracture zones is directly related to the tectonic activity of the crust.