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Σχεδιασμός Επιφανειακής Εκμετάλλευσης Ούμπρας και Ανάκτησης Στείρων στον Μαθιάτη της Κύπρου

Papakonstantinou Alexandros

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Summary

The island of Cyprus has always, since ancient times been famous for the rich deposits that gifted to the island large amounts of metallic copper and other many precious metals, such as gold and silver with the subsequent development of technology.The unawareness of our ancient ancestors, the greediness of the many conquerors who occupied the island through the ages and the superficiality that expresses the mentality of Cypriots were the main factors for the exploitation of many areas with volcanic solid ore deposits of sulphide minerals, the removal of the precious metals that they contained and finally, their careless abandonment without any guilt for the impending contamination of the environment.The abandonment of these mines happened several years ago and in the course of time, it was observed by many researchers, through geochemical studies, that the regions around the mines suffered from various environmental problems. The largest damage was caused by a phenomenon called Acid Mine Drainage, which led to the pollution of aquifer defining of these areas.The abandoned waste piles are still quite enriched in precious metals and probably even rare earth elements, despite the problems that they cause. For this reason, these regions are very attractive to many companies, which examine the low-cost removal and the further processing of those piles. An example of a company with these aims is New Cyprus Copper P.A. Ltd, which made an exploratory study at Northern Mathiatis Mine, the data of which was granted for the preparation of the present work.The processing of the data produced an innovative, digitized model of the area and a 3D structure of the piles of wastes from the pre-existing sulphide mineral exploitation. The greatest innovation of this thesis was the discovery and three-dimensionalization of one of perhaps the largest Umber deposits that have been observed in Cyprus. This model constituted the base for designing the first model of further exploitation and a brief economic analysis of it, with the aim of restoring the mine.The calculation, designs, definitions, and recommendations of this thesis were made with the perspective of enhancing the research regarding the abandoned mines of Cyprus, help to the completion of other mining activities around the island and prove that not only our ancient ancestors can have great and unique achievements in Metallurgy and Mineral Resources Engineering.

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