Presentation at the 9th Annual Tethyan Belt Session, PDAC 2026
1st March 2026, Toronto
Click on the following to download the presentation …
PDAC West Tethyan Belt.pdf Download
This presentation is an update of a similar presentation given by the author at the 5th Annual Tethyan Belt Session at PDAC 2021 which, in turn, built on an earlier presentation on the Tethyan Belt given at a SEG Conference in Türkiye in 2016.
The key observations are:
- The Tethyan belt extends across 34 countries – covering 7.7% of the world’s land area and currently hosts 6.6% of all known mineral deposits.
- Over the last 20 years, exploration expenditures for the Belt totalled $9.8 Billion (in constant Dec 2025 US Dollars) …. Accounting for 3.4% of global spend.
- 685 significant deposits have been identified along the entire Tethyan Belt. 307 of these are in the Western end. The Belt is well endowed for Base Metals.
- Over the last 20 years a total of 143 deposits were discovered in the Tethyan Belt, accounting for 7.0% of the World total (2029 deposits) over the same period.
- The western end has the highest concentration of deposits, particularly Tier 1 mines.
- Over the last 40 years 99 significant deposits were found in the Western end of the Belt, including 9 in the last decade.
- Like elsewhere in the world, recent discovery performance has been poor – but the strongest jurisdiction is Serbia.
To answer the question …. The mainstream view is YES – we are not finding enough copper and gold. Some analysts and stock promoters then go on to say that the impending shortage will be so large that prices will “go to the moon”. MinEx’s view is that the story is much more nuanced.
The key observations are:
- Forecast demand for primary copper is expected to double by 2050.
Yes, its true that we are not finding enough new deposits …