Academician HOU Zengqian, Research Professor YANG Zhiming and ZHANG Hongrui et al. won the second prize in the National Natural Science Award in 2019 for their research work on “Metallogenic Theory of Post-collisional Porphyry Copper Deposits (PCDs)”. They focused on detailed studies of Tibet Plateau PCD belt and global comparisons for 20 years and received important scientific discoveries supporting the new theory. (1) They demonstrated that metallogenic porphyry originated from the partial melting of the thickened newborn lower crust; (2) found that the required water for mineralization came from the mixed injection of the mantle-derived alkaline magma and the decomposition of hornblende in the source zone; (3) demonstrated that the metallogenic metals and sulfur were mostly derived from the melting decomposition of the sulfides deposited in lower crust before collision; (4) found that post-collisional PCDs had a pattern of intensively superposed alteration mineralization zoning. The creation of metallogenic theory of post-collisional PCDs has significantly raised the international status of China in this field, broadened the exploration areas of PCDs across the world, and provided guidance for the prospecting of PCDs in collisional belts. EARTH, a famous international journal, pointed out that this achievement “provides a new insight to the world into how PCDs form”.

 Fig. HOU Zengqian et al. won the second prize of National Natural Science Award in 2019