The distribution of heavy minerals in sediments is affected by such factors as provenance, geological setting, palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment, which constitute sensitive indexes for the evolution of basins and mountains. The characteristics of sediments and heavy minerals in Kuche River section have been studied in this paper. According to the results obtained, the tectonic evolution of Kuche depression and South Tianshan in Mesozoic and Cenozoic can be divided into four periods, namely early and middle Triassic, late Triassic to early Cretaceous, Paleocene to Miocene, and Pliocene to the present, with the uplift of Tianshan in the last period being most intense. The palaeoclimate evolution of Kuche depression and South Tianshan in Mesozoic and Cenozoic can be divided into three periods, i.e., early Triassic (arid_semiarid), middle Triassic to middle Jurassic (humid_semihumid), and late Jurassic to the present (semiarid_arid).