The Yangla Cu deposit is the largest ore deposit in the Jinshajiang polymetallic metallogenic belt,northwest Yunnan,China.There is no consensus on the genesis of the ore deposit owing to the limited studies on the chemical compositions of sulfides.This study used an electron probe micro-analyzer to constrain the chemical compositions of pyrite,chalcopyrite,molybdenite,and sphalerite in the porphyry Cu ore of the Yangla Cu deposit and compared them with the chemical compositions of sulfides in the skarn Cu ore.The trace element contents and their occurrences were used to estimate the metallogenic temperature and infer the genesis of the Yangla deposit.The results show that the sulfides in the porphyry Cu ores have variations of ore element concentrations relative to their theoretical values.Pyrite is depleted in S but elevated in Fe;chalcopyrite is depleted in Cu,Fe,and S;and molybdenite and sphalerite are enriched in S whilst depleted in Mo and Zn.The concentrations of the main metallogenic elements Cu,Fe,Mo,Zn,and S in the porphyry are generally lower than those in skarn,suggesting that the porphyry ore was formed in a moderate to moderate-high temperature metallogenic environment.The formation time may also be slightly later than that of the skarn Cu ore.Elements such as As,Co,Cu,Pb,Zn,Mo,Cd,and Ni mainly exist as isomorphic replacements and mineral inclusions in the sulfides of both porphyry and skarn Cu ores.The trace element features of sulfides in the two ore bodies show that the Yangla Cu deposit may be a composite super imposed ore deposit,and its formation has undergone the process of exhalative-sedimentary to skarnporphyry mineralization.