Located in the middle part of the east Kunlun Mountains, the Golmud River catchment is covered with a large area of granite, especially the potassium-rich granite in local areas. In order to understand the evolution of distal Qarhan Salt Lake, it is important to study the distribution of these granites, the variation of the K, B, and Li elements, and their temporal and spatial migration. In this study, the authors collected samples from granites and their weathered detrital materials along Kunlun River section, Xidatan River section, and Xiaogangou section of Golumd River catchment. Based on major and trace element analysis, rock slice identification, chemical weathering index, and optical stimulated luminescence dating (OSL), the authors investigated the salt-forming elements in the granites and their weathered products. The results are as follows:① In the Xidatan and Kunlun River catchment, gray-white, medium-fine grained late Variscan granulites are predominant, with intermediate level potassium content; In the Xiaogangou River section, there are mainly gray-white and flesh red late Yanshanian porphyritic adamellites, which are potassium-rich granites, and thus these areas are advantageous metallogenic targets of potassium; ② K content gradually decreases and B, Li element content gradually increases with the increasing weathering degree in the granite. The Xiaogangou River section has high K, B content, but the Kunlun River section shows high Li content; ③ The chemical weathering indexes, such as WPI, LOI, are well coupled with the element content variations of different weathering degree samples, indicating that these two chemical weathering indexes are sensitive to the variation of weathering degree; ④ The alluvial sediments section of Xiaogangou River catchment has OSL ages from 95.9±10.5 ka in the bottom layer to 17.7±1.0 ka in the upper layer, and the WPI index, K, B and Li content variation curves in the sections indicate that the salt-forming elements migrations in the granites in the Golmud River catchment seem to have been related to the chemical weathered degree change associated with the glacial-interglacial cycles since late Pleistocene, and these elements have provided abundant saline minerals for the Qarhan Salt Lake.