Cyprus had, in relation to its size, the richest copper deposits in the ancient world, making it the major supplier of metal in the Mediterranean. From the prehistoric period until the Christian era, the island produced an estimated 200,000 tons of copper. The modern name for the metal came from Cuprum, the Roman name of the island.

Copper metallurgy developed rapidly on Cyprus during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Artifacts made of copper or copper alloy, using imported tin or local arsenical copper, were extremely numerous. Most were simply manufactured, utilitarian implements, cast in open molds, then forged into a range of shapes. Characteristic were axes, daggers (or knives), razors, chisels, tweezers, awls, as well as large spearheads, many of which had prototypes in Anatolia.

Cypriot facility in copper metallurgy and the island's wealth in the raw material helped draw Cyprus out of isolation and onto the international scene during the Late Bronze Age. The special character of the island's Late Bronze Age culture grew out of its wealth of copper. At Enkomi, a pair of statuettes of male and female deities standing on miniature oxhide ingots have been found. At Kition and Tamassos copper workshops incorporated into temple complexes suggest a connection between religion and metalworking.

Even with the coming of the Iron Age, copper was much sought after. The Phoenicians of Kition and their Persian allies seized control of the native production network that connected the mines at Tamassos and the smelters at Idalion.

The Hellenistic rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, took over the mines and put their own officials in charge. Later, the Romans leased the mines to the highest bidder. In 12 BC rights to the Soloi mines at Skouriotissa went to King Herod of Judaea, who was allowed to keep profits from half of the copper produced.

In AD 162 Galen, geographer and personal physician to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, visited mines on the island insearch of hydrated sulfates of copper, zinc, and iron, which were used extensively in medicines at the time. He left an excellent written description of ancient mining on Cyprus which is supported by the discovery of ancient mine galleries and adits containing the remains of wooden pit props, ladders and windlasses as well as mining tools, lamps and baskets for carrying ore.

During the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. after mining of metallic copper was curtailed, Arab calligraphers prized vitriol (copper sulfide) from Cyprus, which they mixed with galls from local oak trees to manufacture one of the best and most permanent inks of all time.