The Classical Approach

Despite the impressive skills of modern science, the way to discover profitable mineral deposits around the Mediterranean often seems to be to curl up with a good book. Perusing the Greek classics and pinpointing their references. Italian Entrepreneur Jean-Baptiste Serpieri in 1864 rediscovered the ancient mines of Laurium near Athens, from which the classical Athenians extracted their wealth and the lead needed to build their fleet. Geologist Charles Godfrey Gunther located copper on Cyprus by reading Latin manuscripts. The latest to cash in on the classics is a short, stocky Greek named Alexander Xenarios, who spent 30 years roaming Greece and making minor finds before he hit the jackpot: a deposit in northern Greece's Chalcidice district estimated to be able to yield 200,000 tons of copper and 60 tons of gold.

Xenarios, 57, made most of his earlier finds by reading the classics, including Demosthenes' orations and Aristotle, and listening to local folklore in his travels through Greece. Then he became fascinated by references to the Chalcidice peninsula in Strabo's Geography. He was primarily interested in the allusions to weapons, jewelry and coins made in the Chalcidice--and guessed that this indicated a sizable local lode of metal. He reasoned that much of the metal would still be in the earth, since the early Greeks had primitive mining machinery and thus could dig only shallow mines. Xenarios finally homed in on a region known as Skouries (meaning "deposits of rust") which had the typical copper field's tree-barren look. By careful exploration, he located the ancient mines.

Xenarios got some small financial backing from a friend to set up the Chalcidice Mining Co., received a grant for further explorations from the Greek government. Japan's Nippon Mining Co. joined up with the company for a $350,000 exploratory expedition, last week had a team of Japanese experts working over the deposits. If the Japanese are satisfied by the find, they promise to put up $3,000,000 to form a new company with Chalcidice Mining, buy the copper output and ship it to Japan. Xenarios confidently expects a top position in the new company for his long days of searching and his long nights of reading. "Ancient texts," he says, "are good for modern business."

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