The authors have made an integrated study on the mode of occurrence, extent, petrology and petrochemistry of ophiolite and ophiolitic melange of the Jinshajiang belt in northwestern Yunnan. According to rich fossil data, the age of the ophiolite in the area has been determined to be Late Carboniferous to Permian, while the age of the ophiolitic melange Early-Middle Triassic. The ophiolite is proved to have been formed in an environment of a small oceanic basin. As the oceanic basin stage of the Jinshajiang belt was relatively short, the belt could not have served as a barrier separating the Gondwana biogeographic province from the Yangtze biogeographic province. Consequently, the Jinshajiang suture zone could not constitute the main suture zone in the Paleotethys domain.