The origin of Ni—Mo polymetallic deposits hosted in Lower Cambrian black rock series in South China was reviewed in this paper. Future research directions were further suggested based on the review. In general, the origin can be summarized and divided into five perspectives, including meteoritic impact syndeposition, magma volcanic collapse, sea water, hydrothermal water, and multiple sources. The present works are focused mainly on the sea water and hydrothermal water origins. They have relatively large amount of evidence. However, the issue still has disputes. In addition, bioorganisms and organic matters have important impacts on the formation of the deposits. This is socalled bioorganic mineralization. Thus, we propose that the formation of the deposits has complex mineralization processes, including sea water, hydrothermal water and organic matters. Each of these three different ore genetic models has evidence, but cannot fully comprehensively and reasonably address the formation process due to the complexity of mineralization. Therefore, more studies are needed. Two important directions were suggested, i.e. insitu experimental analyses and temporal and spatial correlation. These understandings provide reference information for the study with large uncertainties and disputes. Moreover, they likely have wide implications as the deposits discussed here are a representative of mineral deposits associated with black rock series worldwide.