Limni Mine Cyprus

MINES OF CYPRUS

LIMNI MINE

Mineral

Iron pyrites and copper pyrites.

Directions

Follow road east from Polis until you see a pier on the left. This was where the ore was transhipped. Heading back slightly you will see the mine offices on the other side of the road and to the right of this a gate leading to the lower mine buildings. If you carry along the road again you can turn right and follow the road up to the village of Kinousa. Beyond this on the left are the upper mine workings.

Visited

2002

Remains

The upper workings beyond Kinousa were not visited but we were told by an ex-miner that there used to be two shafts and an aerial cableway to bring the ore down. Following an earthquake, there were fears that the shafts would collapse so they were filled in and operations changed to open pit working. This miner (Chris Savva) lives in Kinousa and is willing to show people around the mine.

Part way down the hill from Kinousa is a huge open pit that is partly flooded. This was worked for a low grade sulphide deposit towards the end of the mine's life, which closed in the 1980s. Just above this and also across the valley, the tips of older mine workings can be seen. These might only be trials but were not visited. There is a large explosive store on the western side of the pit, which is well ventilated and has a detonator safe. Footings of other buildings can also be seen here. There is a line of small pylons down the hillside but it is not clear if these were an aerial cableway or to carry power lines to the upper mine workings. Some satin spar (gypsum) was also found on the tracks so there must be a vein of it somewhere on site.

At the lower workings, there is a loading ramp leading to a hopper. An elevator rises from the outlet of this and adjacent is a large jaw crusher. There is a building above this but it is difficult to work out what it was for. Next to this is a large storage building. At the time of the visit it contained what looked like crushed magnesite but presumably this is because the equipment was used subsequent to the mine's closure for material brought in from off site. Further on are two complete ball mills and a conical ball mill. These were once covered by a building but are now exposed to the air. All of them were belt-driven off electric motors.

Further along are two medium-sized concrete circular buddles. Below these is a large settling tank and a huge circular buddle. Below this is the incline entrance to the mine. It is 20ft wide x 12ft high with fluorescent lighting, however it is flooded a few feet in as it rapidly reaches sea level. Near here are rows of settling tanks where copper was extracted from copper pyrites by precipitation onto scrap iron in tanks. There are 3 older tanks 20ft x 20ft x 2ft deep, divided into 3 compartments. Also 6 newer ones 20ft x 20ft x 10ft deep. Nearer the road are a collection of garages, workshops, stores, etc. One of these buildings has mine plans visible inside. The buildings seem to be used now as small industrial units and one of them is lived in. The gate at the road is locked but it is possible to walk past it.

Further along the road are the mine offices. These are still used and we were told that miners still came every month to pick up their pension from the company. Strangely enough, there is a sign saying that they sell stamps so maybe it doubles as a post office. The pier is further along the road and there are two buildings here. The pier is starting to decay but it is reasonably safe to walk along the rails. At the end of the pier is an electric crane. We were told that large diggers brought the iron pyrites across from the main workings and dumped it into a large tip next to the pier. Another digger then loaded it into trucks, which were pushed along the pier, and the ore loaded into barges by the crane. The barges then took it out to a ship. There seems to be a lot of double handling of material here but perhaps labour was cheap enough for it not to matter. The iron pyrites were used for manufacturing sulphuric acid.

All over the site, the tracks contain a great deal of iron and copper slag. This indicates that there used to be a smelter here at one time but there are no traces nowadays. Possibly it has been covered over by one of the several large tips that occur between the open pit and the lower road. There are supposed to be some old gold mines in the area which have been lost and maybe these worked gossan deposits on top of the sulphide, now removed.

View towards

sea and tips

Pit from last

period of working

Aerial cableway tower

Hopper

Jaw crusher

made in Leicester

Ball mills made

in Stockton

Rotary buddle

Large buddle

Mine office on main road

Pier for loading onto ships

Revisit in 2003

2009 Update by John Piggott

The Processing Plant site was visited on 24 September 2007.

Much has changed since 2002 with equipment being removed and some areas partially restored. The mine closed in 1977/78 and the site is now owned by Limni Golf Resorts. Their plan is to build a golf course and four hotels on the site with the large, dried out tailings pond (tailings mound) being moved to backfill the opencast pit!

On the plant site the following are still in place:

Crushing Plant : Loading ramp, hopper, elevator leading to top of crusher building, forage building and Frederick Parker jaw crusher at ground level. This plant has been used for crushing magnesite since the mine closed and the jaw crusher was probably installed at that time ( a flowsheet I have from 1971 does not include a Fred Parker crusher). The ball mills next to this plant have been removed with only the concrete bases remaining. Near this plant is a large rectangular tank with wooden sides.

Thickeners : The concrete tanks previously described as circular buddles (and around 40ft in diameter) are the remains of the bases of thickeners used in the process to separate very finely ground mineral from the dissolved copper salts. The larger concrete tank below these was the base for the 100 ft diameter thickener used for the tailings with the thickened underflow being pumped to the adjacent tailing dam (which is now a 100+ ft high flat-topped mound). The inclined entrance below this is not an entrance to the mine but is where the tailings pumps would have been installed underneath the thickener. The old tailings pipeline is still in place leading up the side of the tailings dam.

The rows of cementation tanks in the valley previously seen in 2002 are no longer visible having been covered by material either infilled or washed down from higher up. This whole area of the site and the side of the tailings dam is covered with large amounts of pyrite concentrate which was presumably left unsold when the mine closed.

Buildings : Those along the access road include garages , workshops and stores as well as a small hospital near the main road. Many of these buildings are still being used for various industrial uses and at least one new one built. The mine office on the main road is still used as a post office as well being the office for Limni Golf Resorts. Here I met Andreas Vournaris who was very helpful. He now works for the Development Company. but previously worked at the mine and has been employed here for around 50 years.

Jetty : The old jetty has now been demolished and a new one is being built in its place. This is very nearly finished and will form part of a marina development. Adjacent to the jetty are the remnants of the concreted storage areas where the two types of concentrates were sun dried before being loaded onto barges. The two original buildings at the pier are still in place whilst the electric crane which was seen at the end of the pier in 2002 has now been removed onto the plant site near the stores building. This crane was unlikely to have originally sited at the end of the pier (and used for the final loading of the 50 ton barges) as 1971 photographs show the loading being done along a conveyor system.

A description of the plant as it was in 1971 is given in a paper written by T O Tennery and B G Pocock and published in the Journal of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in Jan 1972.