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Cyprus Mining and Quarrying
![[PDF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pdf.gif)
Figure 8. Minerals, 1990
Based on information from Federal Republic of Germany,
Statisiches Bundesant, Länderbericht Zypern, 1986, Wiesbaden,
1986, 10.
For several millennia, Cyprus was an important source
of copper
ores (mainly cuprous pyrite) and other ores and minerals,
including
chromite, iron pyrite (mined for its sulphur content),
asbestos,
gypsum, and umber
(see
fig. 8). In addition to these
minerals,
exploited mainly for export, limestone, sand, and
aggregates were
quarried in substantial quantities for the domestic cement
and
construction industries. In the 1950s, minerals accounted
for
three-fifths of exports and employed 6,700 persons. By
1963
minerals's share of exports had fallen to 34 percent,
owing to both
a changing world market and the growth of other sectors of
the
Cypriot economy. The Turkish invasion of 1974 disrupted or
ended
much mining activity. Many deposits in the
government-controlled
territory were nearing exhaustion. In 1981 minerals
supplied only
4.5 percent of exports, and by the end of the 1980s less
than l
percent. Mining and quarrying also employed fewer persons:
1,800 in
1979 and half that in 1987. The branch's contribution to
GDP had
also become quite small: 0.5 percent to GDP in 1985 and in
1986 and
0.4 percent in 1987 and 1988. With the closure of the
asbestos mine
in 1988, the industry's contribution to GDP declined still
further.
In 1989 the principal minerals mined were flotation
pyrites (57,455
tons), copper concentrates (1,752 tons), and copper
precipitates
(1,080 tons). The quarrying of sand, gravel, and road
aggregate
depended on construction demands. In the late 1980s,
demand was
generally good. In 1982 a port was constructed at
Vasilikos on the
south central coast to handle the mining and cement
production of
the Hellenic Mining Company.
Data as of January 1991
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