For example, miners targeted “Devil’s Mud” – a narrow layer above the massive sulphide bodies – because it was so highly enriched in gold and silver (presumably supergene). Furthermore, the weathered zones above many deposits are highly enriched in gold and silver. There is extensive evidence that the massive pyrite deposits contained appreciable primary gold.

The gold content of many of the deposits was poorly documented or not tested, and so was rarely included in the historical mining statistics. This is a fallacy perpetuated from historical inaccuracies. Whilst the presence of copper in Cyprus is well-documented it is widely considered that there is little gold on the Island. For an area that has been so productive and that offers such prospectivity the paucity of modern exploration and investment is startling. In short, the decline of the Cyprus copper industry, and its subsequent failure to re-emerge, was not because the mines were exhausted or indeed that the Troodos Mountains are not prospective or poorly endowed. At this time, some very large copper mines in Africa and Chile started production, leading to supply increases, while the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 depressed global copper demand.

It also increased sovereign risk and led to declining international investment in Cyprus. Partition led to the largest mine at Mavrovouni, the Karavostasi port and numerous prospective areas ending up in occupied territory or United Nations-controlled areas. This was further compounded by adverse changes to global supply and demand in the copper market. This that theater and cinema the novel and the song have made spider webs around its dark existence.Copper mining in Cyprus was significantly disrupted and essentially curtailed in the 1970s after Cyprus was partitioned following the dispute between Greece and Turkey. “The mine … where the man of the sun and wind, crawls like the worm to find or not find again the hole open that will take him back to life … the mine that became a curse and accusation, legend and history. A poignant poem by Kostas Montis is engraved on a stone at its entrance, which roughly translated reads: At the Kokkinoyia mine, visitors can see parts of a railway line and a portion of one of the tunnels. At the Kokkinopezoula mine, scarred tiers of earth descend toward a lake with a strange red hue. The abandoned Kokkinopezoula and Kokkinoyia mines near the village of Mitsero offer up-close looks at the island’s historic industry. A combination of environmental issues, falling prices, political turmoil, and resource exhaustion caused a number of the mines to close once again. But as it turns out, for many of the reopened (and newly opened) mines their resurrections were short-lived. The industry remained dormant up until the 19th century, when Great Britain colonized the island and revived the mines. When the Roman Empire fell, the mining industry also ground to a halt. During the Roman era, the metal extracted from the earth there were able to satisfy nearly all of the empire’s copper requirements. The lucrative orange metal ( cuprum in Latin) was even named after the Greek name for Cyprus ( Kúpros). The people who lived on the island thousands of years ago were incredibly skilled metalworkers. Though not particularly old, the rusted structures at these two abandoned mines stand like the modern ghosts of the 6,000-year-old copper industry in Cyprus.Ĭyprus’ mining history began around 4,000 BC with the production of copper.

Cuprum latin