Cyprus had, in relation to its size, the richest copper deposits in the ancient world, making it the major supplier in the Mediterranean. From the prehistoric period until the Christian era, the island produced and estimated 200,000 tons of copper. The name for the metal may have come from the 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 and then forged into a range of shapes. Characteristic were daggers (or knives), razors, axes, chisels, tweezers, awls, as well as large spearheads, many of which had prototypes or parallels 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. At Enkomi statuettes of both 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.