Mantle plume rich in gold is considered to be important for the formation of giant epigenetic gold deposits. The Youjiang ba-sin, SW China, is the world's second largest Carlin-type gold province, but the ultimate source of its gold remains enigmatic. In this study, we report that the Middle-Late Permian basaltic rocks in the basin are rich in native gold grains. These gold grains are scattered in the interstices of pyrite and mar-casite and in the amorphous silica cavities. Mineralogy and S-Pb isotope geochemistry of the auriferous sulfides suggest that the gold was largely derived from the gold-rich Late Permian (ca. 260 Ma) Emeishan plume and was released to a near-surface volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) metallogenic system, where it accumulated. The native gold grains from the basalts may have been inherited by the younger (ca. 140 Ma) Carlin-type ores in the Youjiang basin, which are indicative of gold pre-enrichment in the basin. Our study highlights that golden plume upwelling could carry abundant gold into the upper crust, even into shallow-level metallogenic systems, and thus provides an alternative view on the source of gold in the Youjiang basin.