Granites constitute as major and typical components the continental crust.Making thesignificant rare-metal enrichments and consequently tempo-spatially wide mineralization,granite-forming processes constructthe continental metallogenic system.Granite-relatedrare-metal mineralization certainly originating from continental evolution is thus logicallycharacterizedinto the continental metallogeny.Granitic pegmatites are considered the most important sources for lithium,beryllium and tantalum,meanwhile alkaline rocks(including granites,pegmatites and carbonatites)mostly contributed to niobium and zirconium mineralization.Based on compiled geochronological data,global distribution ages of rare-metal mineralization span mainly in Archean (3.0~2.6 Ga)、Paleoproterozoic (~1.8 Ga)、Neoproterozoic (1.0~0.9 Ga)、Paleozoic (450~400 Ma)、early Mesozoic (250~200Ma)、late Mesozoic (160~130 Ma)and Miocene in Cenozoic (35~10Ma),directly linking supercontinental cycling events and synchronous rare-metal mineralization.The earliest rare-metal mineralization was recorded in Ur-Kenorland supercontinent,forming important lithium-cesium- tantalum-type pegmatite provinces particularly in northern America,southern Africa and western Australia.Other dominant metallogenic events successively correspond to assembly-breakup of Columbia,Rodinia,Gondwana and Pangea continents,and most likely ended during the Cenozoic collision between India-Asia blocks.Interestingly, rare metals display co-evolution between minerals and mineralization,as the case of the first record of spodumene,elbaite,beryl and columbite-tantalite in Archean (3.0~2.6Ga).