The Carpatho-Balkanides and adjacent area: a sector of the Tethyan Eurasian metallogenic belt

Abstract

The Tethyan Eurasian metallogenic belt (TEMB) was formed during Mesozoic and post-Mesozoic times in the area of the former Tethyan ocean on the southern margin of Eurasia, with the Afro-Arabian and Indian plates to the south. It extends from western Mediterranean via the Alps and southeastern Europe through the Lesser Caucasus, the Hindu Kush, and the Tibet Plateau to Burma and SW Indonesia, linking with the West Pacific metallogenic belt. The Carpatho-Balkan region is one of the sectors of the TEMB, characterized by some specific features. The emplacement of ore deposits is related to a definite time interval, and to specific tectonic settings such as:

1. Late Permian-Triassic intracontinental rifting along the northern margin of Gondwanaland and/or fragments already separated. This setting involves volcanogenic and volcano-sedimentary deposits (iron, lead/zinc, manganese, antimony, mercury, barite), skarn deposits associated with volcano-plutonic complexes of bimodal magmatism, and low temperature carbonate-hosted lead/zinc deposits.

2. Jurassic intraoceanic rifting – ophiolite complexes: This setting hosts major magmatic (particularly podiform chrome deposits) and volcano-sedimentary deposits, mainly of the Cyprus type.

3. Subduction-related setting involves porphyry copper deposits, lesser skarn deposits (iron, locally Pb-Zn), massive sulphide Cu (e.g. Bor) accompanied locally by Pb-Zn of replacement type, epithermal gold deposits, associated with calc-alkaline igneous complexes of the Early Tertiary-Late Cretaceous, and the Neogene gold/silver and base metals deposits.

4. Post-collision continent-continent setting includes deposits of Pb-Zn, Sb, As, Au-Cu associated with volcano-plutonic complexes of calc-alkaline affinity.

Several major Alpine metallogenic units are developed in the Carpatho-Balkanides and adjacent area, each characterized by specific development, mineral associations, and types of ore deposits.