Cyprus Mail - 26 July 2019 - article by Peter Michael
Martin French
A London-based company, Chesterfield Resources, has identified copper and gold prospects in the western Troodos area, the head of the company Martin French told IGTV’s Jeremy Naylor in an interview.
French said: “Copper is seen as the metal of the future, and as everybody knows it is closely linked to this megatrend of electric cars.”
He added that normal cars have about 20kg of copper, while the Tesla Model 3 (an electric car) can have approximately 106kg of copper in it, which increases the demand for the metal.
Asked about his company’s interest in Cyprus, French said: “Well the funny thing is the word copper comes from the Greek word for Cyprus originally.”
He added that in classical times the island was the world centre for copper production and the business of mining the metal had continued through the 60s and 70s, but was halted after the Turkish invasion in 1974.
Following the invasion, French said that interest in the island’s industry died down, due to other discoveries in the world, such as the find in Latin America, which drew businesses there.
However, French added there has been a renewed interest in the metal, and that it made sense for his business to look into operations in Cyprus.
“And we have pretty much acquired all the licences in the prospective areas,” French said about the areas his company is planning to mine.
French said that they acquired a part of the Troodos area, through a reverse takeover and that they conducted preliminary drillings in the area just before Christmas, which yielded good results, including not only copper, but gold as well.
The company head said that they had acquired approximately 50 square km to start on the Troodos area, but have now expanded and bought 237 square km.
French added that they will start with explorations in the western Troodos area, and then move to a northern area, and a southern area they have also acquired.
Link for video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRjZLRdVPGM
