Cyprus Mines Corporation
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
company based in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
. In 1914, Charles G. Gunther began prospecting in the Skouriotissa
Skouriotissa
Skouriotissa is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus and the site of the former Skourotissa mines. Today the area is largely uninhabited with only 8 people remaining in the village....
area after reading in ancient books that the island was rich in copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and noticing promising ancient Roman slag heaps in the area. The company was established in 1916 by Colonel Seeley W. Mudd
Seeley W. Mudd
Col. Seeley Wintersmith Mudd was a mining engineer. He was born in Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri on August 16, 1861. He attended Washington University of St. Louis, where he graduated in 1883 with a degree in mining engineering. In December 1885, he moved to Leadville, Colorado, to...
and his son, Harvey Seeley Mudd
Harvey Seeley Mudd
Harvey Seeley Mudd was a mining engineer and founder, investor, and president of Cyprus Mines Corporation, a Los Angeles-based international enterprise that operated copper mines on the island of Cyprus. The science and engineering college Harvey Mudd College was named in memory of him...
.
Initially the mine struggled, but eventually obstacles were overcome and the mine produced money. Turkish and Greek Cypriots were hired, and the town of Skouriotissa became a hub because so many miners moved there. The corporation took an old-style, paternalistic attitude towards workers, building a company town
Company town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
around the mine.
Harvey Seeley Mudd claimed his experience with the Cyprus Mines Corporation influenced him to push the study of humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
in the engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
college he started, Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College is a private residential liberal arts college of science, engineering, and mathematics, located in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds....
.
The Cyprus Mines Corporation provided copper to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
right up until the start of the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Although it is clear they knew they were giving aid to the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
military, the owner of the mine claims he didn't want to put the Cypriots out of jobs by cutting sales to Germany. They were, however, disturbed by Hitler's policy of Jewish persecution, and in late 1938, CMC established a relief fund along with their agent to help former business associates get out of Germany.
Long strikes took place in 1948, organized by the Pancyprian Federation of Labour and the Turkish Cypriot trade unions. After extending the initial five-day strike, the union asked for government intervention. The government declared that they could not start an inquiry since wages were not substandard.
One of the operating mines and the company's processing plant fell north of the cease-fire line in Turkish-occupied Cyprus following the Turkish invasion
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
The Turkish invasion of Cyprus, launched on 20 July 1974, was a Turkish military invasion in response to a Greek military junta backed coup in Cyprus...
in 1974, whilst the rest of the companies mines were the other side of the Green Line. Given this insurmountable problem, the Cyprus Mines Corporation pulled out of Cyprus and the Mavrovouni mine and processing plant remained in an area not controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus.
As in most mines, the tailings
Tailings
Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...
, waste left over from processing ore, are a problem, and as of 2006, there are no plans to clean up the tailings. The people of Cyprus are left with neither the income from the mines nor the use of the now polluted land surrounding those mines because they have no way to pay for the cleanup. Local farmers claim that citrus crop yields have been lowered by contaminated dust blowing in. Studies of local fruit have found high heavy metal levels and decreased fruit size and quality. The effect of the mine is a growing issue for Cypriot environmentalists and NGOs.
Later history
- In 1979 Cyprus Mines Corporation was acquired by Amoco Corporation. Amoco expanded Cyprus into a diversified worldwide mining company.
- Amoco spun off Cyprus Minerals Company in 1985. In 1986, Cyprus acquired the Sierrita copper and molybdenum mine near Tucson, ArizonaTucson, ArizonaTucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
. - In 1993, AMAX merged with the Cyprus Minerals Company to form Cyprus Amax Minerals Company. Cyprus-Amax was the world's leading producer of molybdenum and lithium, and a leading producer of copper and coal. The company had operations in 24 states and on six continents.
- In late 1999, Cyprus Amax Minerals was acquired by Phelps DodgePhelps DodgePhelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 by Anson Greene Phelps and William Earle Dodge, Sr.. On March 19, 2007, it was acquired by Freeport-McMoRan and now operates under the name Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.-History:...
Corporation, which in turn was acquired by Freeport-McMoRanFreeport-McMoRanFreeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., often called simply Freeport, is the world's lowest-cost copper producer and one of the world's largest producers of gold...
(NYSE: FCX) in 2007, forming the world's largest copper producer.