Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Mining: Hopes of a return to an old island industry

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Mining: Hopes of a return to an old island industry

    Mining: Hopes of a return to an old island industry
    By Kerin Hope

    FT
    August 1 2005 17:30

    Ron Cunneen cracks open a boulder on a slope below Mount Troodos with
    a geologist's hammer and points to a blue-green copper stain on the
    exposed surface. "This hillside is one of our most interesting target
    areas for exploration," he says.

    Mr Cunneen, exploration director at East Mediterranean Resources,
    a Cyprus based mining company, says that after a 30-year gap in
    prospecting, there are good possibilities of discovering commercially
    viable copper deposits on the island through the use of up to date
    geophysical techniques.

    Companies that worked in Cyprus in the 1950s and 1960s used modern
    machinery to extract additional ores from deposits that had been
    mined in antiquity.

    "The surface has been mined to oblivion, but we're doing blind geology
    - looking for ore bodies at shallow depths," Mr Cunneen says.

    Cyprus used to be renowned for its copper. Its name is derived from
    the ancient Greek word for the mineral. Ox hide shaped copper ingots
    smelted from locally mined ores were traded across the Mediterranean
    more than 3,000 years ago. Copper mining was the island's biggest
    foreign exchange earner until the arrival of sun and sea tourism.

    But the Turkish military intervention in 1974 halted mining activity.
    The island's biggest producer, Cyprus Mines Corporation of the US -
    the forerunner of Cyprus Amax - pulled out after its copper mining
    operation and treatment plant were separated by the ceasefire
    line. High levels of perceived political risk kept Cyprus off the
    international prospecting map.

    In spite of a surge in copper prices, operations have been suspended at
    Hellenic Copper Mines, the last surviving Cypriot producer, because
    the company has been unable to service its debts.

    Aristidis Anagnostaras-Adams, chief executive of EMED, says it is
    time for a new start. "Sovereign risk is less now that Cyprus is a
    member of the European Union and we see our mineral rights there as
    a cornerstone asset."

    EMED earlier this year raised £2.25m through a flotation on London's
    AIM market for small companies. Mr Adams, a Greek-Australian who
    revived an early 20th century coal mine and gold extraction operation
    at Gympie in Australia, says the company plans to spend up to £1m
    on a two-year exploration and drilling programme.

    Remaining funds would support gold exploration projects in Greece,
    Bulgaria and Slovakia, where EMR has applied for prospecting licences.

    "We're following specific mineral belts across the region that offer
    opportunities in a number of countries, from Armenia to Slovakia"
    Mr Adams says.

    The Troodos mountain range in south Cyprus is part of a 5 km wide belt
    of copper-bearing rock, that extends for 80 km across the island. The
    richest deposit known to date produced 15m tonnes of ore with a copper
    content of 4 per cent.

    "We're looking to find several deposits with a similarly rich copper
    content," says Nicos Adamides, EMED's senior geologist.

    EMED has acquired prospecting permits covering 370 sq km, including
    about two-thirds of the "pillow lava" rock formations that contain
    all the known copper deposits on Cyprus.

    It also has acquired 95 per cent of East Mediterranean Minerals, a
    joint venture between Oxiana of Australia and Hellenic Mining Company,
    the parent of Hellenic Copper. Hellenic has retained the remaining
    5 per cent.

    The acquisition included an extensive database built by Oxiana,
    which has been upgraded to allow faster analysis and interpretation.

    EMED plans to make four or five test drillings later this year in
    target areas that geophysical studies have identified as having rock
    structures similar to known copper deposits.

    The Troodos area, which traditionally produces fruit and vegetables,
    has seen a sharp decline in population as young people leave for
    jobs in Nicosia and tourist resorts on the coast. While abandoned
    opencast mines are visible in the mountains, copper mining activity
    was located away from villages.

    EMED, which has its field office in the mountain village of Agia
    Marina, has started to address potential environmental issues by
    explaining in detail its prospecting programme to local officials in
    the Troodos area.

    Mr Cunneen says: "People here haven't forgotten the mining boom in
    the mid-20th century and the prosperity it brought. We believe there's
    local support for mining."

    --Boundary_(ID_GmcLWyynmS298P7KtxCs+Q)--
Working...
X