Kupferberg is located c. 10 km in the east of Kulmbach in Upper Franconia (northeastern Bavaria). The stratiform Cu-Zn deposit represents Bavaria´s largest base metal deposit, for which up to now no decent genetic model existed. In the northeast, the c. 4 km long string of separate, stratiform ore lenses is part of the parautochthonous Randschiefer Formation and in the southeast, it is hosted by the high-grade, allochthonous Münchberg metamorphic complex. None of the previous investigations were able to explain, why this stratiform ore deposit cross-cuts on of the region´s major fault zones without any offset.

The ore itself has a remarkably simple mineralogy, it consists mainly of pyrite with variable amounts of chalcopyrite and sphalerite, accompanied by quartz and calcite. Various investigations (among others U-Pb zircon dating, Cu- and S-isotopic analyses) revealed a two-stage genetic model for the Kupferberg Cu-Zn deposit: A syngenetic pyrite-enrichment and a hydrothermal sulfide-enrichment. The latter was the product of a syn-orogenic fluid-expulsion from beneath the Münchberg metamorphic complex, which makes Kupferberg a syntectonic, metamorphogenic base metal deposit.