Two large Hitachi excavators are bringing advanced technology to an ancient copper mine in Cyprus. The ZX870LCR-3 and ZX470LCH-3 have been working at the site, which dates back more than 4,000 years, since early 2011. Cyprus was the main source for the metal during Roman times and the first written reference to the production of copper was on this site at Skouriotissa, near the village of Katydata. Today the 3 km² mine is run by Hellenic Copper Mines (HCM). It extracts 30,000 t/d of ore and rock using the Hitachi ZX870LCR-3 large excavator loading a fleet of rigid dump trucks.

The ZX470LCH-3 excavator is used for stacking, with both machines were supplied by local dealer Unitrak Machinery.HCM’s CEO Constantinos Xydas said: “This is the biggest extraction process of its kind in the history of Cyprus. We are currently meeting half of our total capacity of 8,000 t of high-quality London Metal Exchange-specification copper cathodes. We ship these to Glencore’s base in Italy for onward distribution throughout Europe. The aim is to reach the total capacity by 2013.” Constantinos has been involved with the mine since 1978 when initially a dump leaching process was utilised. Following a feasibility study by HCM in November 1994, it was decided to pursue leaching technologies, including the process of selective mining. The pit has therefore been designed in 3.5 m-high benches so that the ore can be classified into three grades. Each undergoes a different processing method: high grade through heap leaching; intermediary grade through crushing, screening and heap leaching; and low grade through dump leaching. Since 1996, the mine has been using pioneering hydrometallurgic technology to process the low-grade ores economically. It was the first operation of its kind in Europe. “Ancient mining ran at 10%, ie 100 kg of copper in every tonne of ore – whereas the average grade now is 0.35%,” comments Constantinos. “This is a significant challenge and we have to be efficient to produce a high-quality final product…in comparison with other machines, the Hitachi machines are reliable for work with the crusher, fast and efficient for loading, and flexible for the special characteristics of selective mining.”