Kannoures chromite mine, Nicosia District, Cyprusi

Regional Level Types
Kannoures chromite mine	Mine (Inactive)
Nicosia District	District
Cyprus	Country

The exploitation of chromium in Cyprus, in the form of chromite mining, dates from 1922 when some occasional small surface excavations were carried out in the Troodos region and the Limassol Forest. The systematic exploitation of chromites began in 1931 in the Troodos mountains, specifically at the Kokkinorotsos deposits, continuing later at the Kanoures (1939) and Hadjipavlou (1950) sites. These deposits are close to the top of Mount Olympus where harzburgite and dunite are found together and the average concentration of Cr2O3 in the spinelium is around 52%.

Operations ceased in 1982 due to pressure on the commercial price of chromite which was being replaced for refractory purposes by other materials and by the appearance on the international market of cheap chromite from South Africa with new methods of producing ferrochrome.

For the extraction of the ore, underground methods were used, specifically by driving successive horizontal floors or storeys or filling the void with sandfill or hydraulic sandfill using cemented rockfill containing waste from the enrichment plants at Saint Nicholas of the Roof and Kakopetria. In a few isolated instances, the shrinkage method was used.

The enhancement methods that were applied were mainly gravitometric (heavy media drum and cyclones, vibrating classifiers, tables and variations of these). The ore supplying the enhancement plant had an average Cr2O3 concentration of 27% while it was 48% in the resulting products and as a natural by-product of Cypriot chromite it was destined mainly for refractory purposes.



During the exploitation of the aforementioned deposits, it is estimated that some 1,200,000 tons of ore were extracted, providing after processing around 560,000 tons of chromite concentrate. Mining research suggests that Kokkinorotsos and Hajipavlou still contain exploitable chromite deposits.


A chromium mine, located about 1 km northeast of Mount Olympus.

The Kannoures mine operated periodically during 1939-1982 using underground exploitation methods for the chromite ore recovery. Approximately 34,400 tons of high drade chromite ore were extracted from this mine. It is estimated that from all three Chromite mines around the Olympus Mountain, a total of approximately 912.000 tons of chromite were extracted which after processing resulted in the production of more than 560.000 tons of chromite concentrates.

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