Copper has been used by human beings for at least 7,000 years.
Copper is relatively common around the Mediterranean and was to be found in
nuggets and masses on the surface of the earth, adjacent to streams, in the
walls of canyons. Exposure to weather changes copper's reddish colour to
blue-green.
Cyprus - Island
of Copper. Cypriots first worked copper in the fourth millennium B.C.,
fashioning tools from native deposits of pure copper, which at that time could
still be found in places on the surface of the earth.
In the period 1938 - 1950 Kalavassos was one of the
largest mining communities in Cyprus and many people
went to work and some even settled there. Remnants of
the era are the little train with its carriages used to
transport copper to the 'Vassiliko' where it was crushed
and refined before shipment.
