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Numerous ore-grade heavy mineral placer deposits occur in the northern South China Sea region. Previous studies on these deposits have focused on the heavy-mineral ore resources themselves, but the provenance and transport pathways of these heavy minerals are poorly constrained. This paper presents U–Pb ages of detrital zircons from sediments within the northwestern shelf of the South China Sea, and uses this new dataset to determine the provenance and transport pathway of the sediments. Zircons in sediments from ten areas of the northwestern shelf exhibit distinct age populations, suggesting that they have multiple provenances. Zircons in sediments from the Pearl River Mouth, Shangchuan Island, and Moyang River Mouth areas all have an obvious peak of Mesozoic ages, indicating that they have similar sediment provenances; i.e., mainly from the Pearl River, and to a lesser degree from the Moyang River. Zircons in sediments from the areas around the Jian River Mouth and Leizhou Bay, and off Hainan Island have an early Paleozoic age, suggesting that the sediments predominantly originate from the Yunkai massif. Zircons of the sediments from the remaining four areas, the Leiqiong Strait, Wanquan River Mouth, Qiongdongnan, and the Outer Shelf, have Yanshannian and Indosinian age peaks in addition to an obvious early Paleozoic population, implying mixed provenances, including the Yunkai massif and Hainan Island. The sediment transport may have involved two hydrodynamic conditions in two distinct stages. First, the Guangdong Longshore Current carried the river sediments to where they dispersed in the inner shelf; subsequently, wave-induced strong currents further transported sandy sediments southeastward to the outer shelf. In addition to explaining the provenance and transport pathways of heavy minerals within the northwestern shelf of the South China Sea, these results provide new information relevant to exploration for heavy-mineral placer deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]