This paper is the result of mineral exploration engineering.

Objective Molybdenum (Mo) is a strategic mineral resource. It is of great significance to identify molybdenum ore resources in North China, summarize the metallogenic laws, and put forward the prospecting direction, which is of great significance for the exploration and deployment of molybdenum ore in the study area.

Methods Based on the data of 98 molybdenum deposits, the authors systematically analyzed and summarized the metallogenic epoch regularities, spatial regularities, material sources and ore-controlling factors in the study area through combing the resources endowment, metallogenic characteristics and prediction types of molybdenum deposits, then analyzed the resource potential and put forward the prospecting direction.

Results Molybdenum deposits in North China could be divided into four metallogenic types and four mineral prediction types. The metallogenic regularities of molybdenum deposits had been summarized and the prospecting direction is proposed.

Conclusions We thought the metallogenic age mainly concentrated in the Paleoproterozoic, the Permian-Triassic and Jurassic-Cretaceous, and the later was the major metallogenic epoch. The molybdenum deposits mainly produced in Paleoproterozoic Henan-Shanxi continental margin rift zone, late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic continental margin active zone in the south and north of North China block and the late Mesozoic magmatic arc, which the main metallogenic types were porphyry type and skarn type. The ore-forming materials were mainly come from crust-source or crust-mantle mixed source, and the ore-forming fluids were dominated by magmatic water, which were mixed with atmospheric water in the late stage. We pointed out three the most important areas as superior ore-forming conditions and great ore-prospecting potential like Pingquan, Hebei Province-Chifeng-Liangcheng in Inner Mongolia, the western segment of the northern margin of the North China block and Ruyang-Songxian-Luanchuan area in east Qinling-Dabie belt and Heiyingshan-Yagan area.