Whilst the presence of copper in Cyprus is well-documented it is widely considered that there is little gold on the Island. This is a fallacy perpetuated from historical inaccuracies. The gold content of many of the deposits was poorly documented or not tested, and so was rarely included in the historical mining statistics. There is extensive evidence that the massive pyrite deposits contained appreciable primary gold. Furthermore, the weathered zones above many deposits are highly enriched in gold and silver. 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). The first preliminary assays of Devil’s Mud were taken from Skouriotissa in 1920, but it was never seriously investigated until depressed copper and pyrite prices in 1932 forced the Cyprus Mining Corporation (CMC) to investigate a possible precious metal income stream. Devil’s Mud was immediately identified at Skouriotissa with “areas of high-grade ore running as much as 50 ounces of gold per ton, though with very little silver, and, conversely, other areas containing 800 ounces of silver a ton and only traces of gold.” (Lavender, 1962). These discoveries led to exploration elsewhere in the Troodos Mountains and ultimately the mining of Devil’s Mud by CMC at seventeen locations, albeit most of this mining was very small scale. During 2016, the Hellenic Mining Company commissioned a gold circuit at Skouriotissa to process the oxide material in the area.
CMC’s experience of the Devil’s Mud clearly shows that gold and silver are widespread throughout Cyprus. The primary pyrite ores, however, were never exploited because the technology to extract gold and silver at that time was not advanced enough to be economically viable. This is not the case today.
More recent work confirms that gold is widespread in the primary pyrite ore and that it can be quite high grade. For example:
Zinc was also not considered when mining the Cyprus deposits, even though it is widely encountered and could be a reasonable addition to their exploitation.
Source: Competent Persons Report for Caerus Mineral Resources produced by Rocklore Exploration Services Limited.