Amiantos Mine, Limassol
Cyprus is considered to be one of the most ancient sources of amiantos. During the Classic and Roman period, amiantos was used for the creation of sheets of incineration of the dead, for footwear and for fuses in lights.
The latest history of the exploitation of amiantos begins during the 20th century when the gold type of amiantos began being used in the industry. In 1904 some villages were given the privilege to exploit amiantos on the slopes of eastern Troodos where rich areas containing amiantos were found. One of these areas was Amiantos a village in the Limassol district , located 7 kilometres southwest of the Kyperounda village.
The exploitation rights of the amiantos were given to the company <Cypriot Amiantos Mines Ltd> in 1934, which began the process to extract the amiantos during 1950 and worked until 1988.The amiantos is extracted from the land and this created various changes to the morphology and the vegetation in the area. The long operation of the mine with the method of surfaced exploitation affected the natural environment in the area and had direct and indirect consequence on the greater environment.
The absence of the environmental law during the operation of the mine allowed the underestimation and ignorance of the environment. After the termination of the mining work in 1992, the government took over the restoration of the area. The restoration process began in autumn 1995 under the guidance of a technical board which is made up of a geologist, a geotechnical mechanic, a forester, a metal mechanic, a surveyor, a health inspector and an environmentalist.
The project was aimed at regulating the pile of sterile ingredients and the reforestation of the areas. At the same time, the General plan is to reuse the space and the mine buildings, after the restoration is completed.
The settlement was originally called the village of Hadjiktori. Then the name of the village became Kato Amiantos. After the closing of the mine in 1988, Pano Amiantos was slowly abandoned. The two communities were then joined as one in 2005, with the name Amiantos.
There is a central church in the village that is dedicated to Apostle Andrea. There is also another chapel dedicated to Agia Paraskevi. At the borders of Amiantos – Pelendri a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was built by the community. The chapel is located very close to the settlement of Amiantos.
According to the population inventory that took place in Cyprus, the village population met a great increase during the period that the mine was in operation. Before 1950, when the mining was done manually, the population reached its peak. After 1950 machines were used, which caused a population decline. After the mine was shut down, as well as due to urbanism, the population had decreased even more.
