Geographical Location:
The project is located in the Ardanuç and Central (Merkez) districts of Artvin Province.
The total license area covers 5,903 hectares and consists of three licenses.
Geology:
The regional geology was well summarized by Akçay and Gündüz (2003). Located within the Alpine orogenic belt, Turkey is bounded by the Eurasian Plate to the north and the Arabian and African Plates to the south. Turkey is divided into four main east–west-trending tectonic zones. From north to south, these are designated as the Pontides, the Anatolides, the Taurides, and the Border Folds. These belts formed during the Mesozoic as a result of continental collisions, subduction, and sedimentation.
The Artvin project area is located in the Eastern Pontides tectonic zone, within a 500 km-long and 50–75 km-wide mountain range that extends along the southeastern Black Sea coast. As part of an island arc system, the Eastern Pontides formed during the Jurassic to Neogene periods associated with the subduction of the Tethyan oceanic floor and the Alpine orogeny. It primarily formed as a result of uplift driven by collision south of the Anatolide–Tauride microcontinent along a northward-dipping subduction zone beneath the Pontide arc (Aldridge, 2009). The collision of a secondary subduction zone resulted in the emplacement of porphyry-type mineral intrusions to the north of the Pontide arc.
To the north-northeast of the suture zone, the Artvin project encompasses Late Paleozoic metamorphic rocks, granites, and predominantly basaltic, thick Middle Jurassic volcanic rocks. Within the project area, Eocene porphyritic intrusions into predominantly Cretaceous-age volcanic stratigraphy are commonly encountered. The stratigraphy is characterized by closely spaced, northwest–southeast-trending thrust faults that define a regional-scale linear belt. The Eastern Pontides host numerous Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide (VMS) deposits.
Our activities in this license area are currently in the exploration and reserve development phase.