COPPER IN CENTRAL EURASIA: LINKING TECTONICS AND METALLOGENY

Central Eurasia and Russia host significant porphyry copper deposits and sediment-hosted copper deposits. The region is an important copper producer, a focus of mineral industry exploration interest, and has a complex tectonic history. A number of case studies that focused on world-class mine camps such as the Kalmakyr-Dalnee porphyry copper deposits district (Uzbekistan) and sediment-hosted copper deposits such as the Dzhezkazgan – Shu-Sarysu basin (Kazakhstan) have been carried out and were utilized to refine key criteria that are pivotal for successful exploration targeting. The GIS supported methodology is able to serve applications to regional-scale mineral resource assessment and exploration efforts both in newly established and verified known target regions. The advances in the knowledge on the geologic framework for copper deposits (emphasis on porphyry and sediment-hosted deposits) in the former Soviet Union and neighboring territories permit to pay increased attention to new approaches to delineate perspective domains in the Central Asian orogenic system (Altaids) and adjacent territories.