The Tethyan Belt

Click to enlarge

Columbus Copper Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company operating principally in and near the under-explored Tethyan Metallogenic Belt (the Tethyan Belt).

The Tethyan Belt is a major porphyry-related mineralized zone that extends across central and southeast Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, through the Himalayan region into Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It contains a wealth of large ore deposits.

The eastern and central sections are well-recognized as hosting world class mineralization such as Grasberg (64.2 billion lbs of Cu, 88.8 million oz. of gold) in Indonesia, Ok Tedi (4.68 billion lbs of Cu, 9.17 million oz. of gold) in Papua New Guinea, Batu Hijau (4.7 billion lbs of Cu, 5.0 million oz. of gold) in Indonesia, Sar Cheshmeh (18.5 billion lbs of Cu, 11.4 million oz. of gold) in Iran and Reko Diq (24 billion lbs copper, 21 million oz. gold) in Pakistan.

The western (European) part that includes Turkey has received less attention, however, the western segment plays host to the world class gold province of the Romanian Golden Quadrilateral, the porphyry/epithermal cluster of Bor (7.94 billion lbs of Cu, 3.5 million oz. of gold) and Majdanpek (13.2 billion lbs of Cu, 10.6 million oz. of gold) in Serbia. More recent developments include Skouries (4.1 billion lbs of Cu, 8.3 million oz. of gold) and Olympias (12.0 billion lbs of Pb, 16.0 billion lbs of Zn, 4.2 million oz. of gold, and 59.3 million oz. of silver) in Greece, and Çöpler (6.3 million oz. of gold) and Kişladağall (6.9 million oz. of gold) in Turkey.