Petrogenesis and Tectonic Implications of the Ore-Associated Intrusions in Bayanbaolege Ag Polymetallic Deposit, Inner Mongolia, NE China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript by Xi Wang et al applies U-Pb dating of zircons from a granodiorite to constrain the timing of Ag polimetalic complex in the Bayanbaolege Deposit, Inner Mongolia, NE China. Additionally, whole rock major and trace element chemistry helps to elucidate the tectonic setting. This paper may be of great interest to the broader ore genesis community. However, some grammatical and documentary changes are required.
Two things related to this article need to be improved. The text contained therein is unreadable to a potential reader in many figures. The study lacks documentation of the tested samples. Two microscopic photos of poor quality are insufficient to document the samples that were taken for scientific investigation. The second remark concerns CL zirconiums. The quality of the figures is very poor. Also, microphotographs of some of the Zr CL show that they have inherited testicles. Have the authors documented such a case?
The presented data support the authors’ arguments, which are mostly clear and easy to follow for the reader. The manuscript contains some technical issues, which I have tried to highlight below in my attached file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer Comments to Authors:
Reviewer #1
The manuscript is extremely poorly written and there are several areas where this paper could be improved.
The following points may be considered while revising the article:
Ø Introduction’ is very short; provide general background of the work (project, connection to mineral exploration), introduce reader to the research problem (why Bayanbaolege Ag Polymetallic Deposit is important), the sources of the hydrothermal components and the relationships between Ag polymetallic mineralization and regional tectonic setting.
Ø Rewriting requires: The aim of the study is not clearly stated the purpose and scope of the study
Ø Geological background’ is short and does not provide scientific and regional context for the work. Previous studies are insufficiently presented; more key references are needed. Explain concepts ‘Geology of the Bayanbaolege Ag-Pb-Zn deposit’ and ‘Geology of ore-related intrusions’ and describe the regional geology.
Ø Figure. 1 The geological map of the study area must be included (the reader need to understand the overall set-up of the study area), label important items and consider adding a map legend
Ø Assess once more, if all the figures and tables are essential. Considered moving part of those to Electronic Appendices. The reader must grasp the necessity of every figure included.
Ø Discussion is extremely poorly written’. You can, for example, discuss your results from different points of view: (1) Host-rock granodiorite and diorite lithological units identified, (2) Mineralization process and styles of the porphyry system(3) Petrogenesis of the post-ore diorite porphyrite, (4) Magma-hydrothermal mineralization with reliability and significance of the age determinations.
Ø Authors say tectonic implications in section 6.4 during Late Mesozoic magmatism has been controversial and invoked; how this reflected in ‘Conclusions’?
Ø The paper also needs further work improving the writing. There are numerous
Ø English grammar issues.
Ø The abstract and conclusions seem to be a bit misleading as far as the subject of the paper is concerned. The reader is told that the paper deals with the Petrogenesis and Tectonic Implications of the Ore-Associated Intrusions, while it seems that the real purpose is to present the analytical results of some samples as geochemical analysis and Zircon U-Pb dating.
Ø The main objective of the study about the polymetallic Ag, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ga mineralization in Bayanbaolege, the authors should rework the text to explain in detail the following points:
· Mineralogy of Ore minerals and Gangue minerals
· Geochemistry of the mineralization
· Dimension and size of the ore body
Ø You say tectonic implications in section 6.4 during Late Mesozoic magmatism has been controversial and invoked; how this reflected in ‘Conclusions’?
Sincerely,
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The text has much more better shape now. A few improvement should be done. Use the same font size on the fig. 4 for all numbers and letters. My recommendation is to move table 2 to supplementary materials. It takes 3 pages and is not necessary here.
