News & events

Aphrodite of Milos is crying, the new book by Sofia Yialouraki, teacher and distinguished author of children’s books, was presented on 14 April 2010, at the Milos Conference Center–George Eliopoulos. The book’s publication by Erevnites Publishers was sponsored by the Milos Mining Museum (MMM) in the framework of its educational programs.

Mrs. Kitty Kyriacopoulos, Honorary Chair of S&B Industrial Minerals S.A., Mrs. Sofia Marouta, Head of Marketing at Erevnites Publishers, and Mr. Petros Papapetros, Head of Production at Erevnites Publishers, introduced the presentation. Mrs. Irini Vlastari, School Counsellor for the Southern Cyclades, Mr. Athanasios Kefalas, member of the managing committee of the MMM and Manager of Local Affairs of Milos at S&B Industrial Minerals, and the author addressed the public. Mr. Theodoros Salamalekis, Head of the Fourth Office of Primary Education of the Southern Cyclades co-ordinated the event.

The presentation was attended by members of the local clergy, Mrs. P. Kalogeraki, Governor of Milos, Mr. G. Tsainis, Mayor of Milos, heads of public authorities and cultural institutions, and most of the island’s schoolteachers. Mrs. Yialouraki’s direct, engaging, and sincere speech enchanted the audience, which she took on a journey of experience and knowledge.

In his speech, Mr. Kefalas said among other things: “The MMM, which already promotes the island’s mineral and natural wealth through its exhibits, organized geological walks, and other educational programs for adults and children, now takes a step further with this first publication aimed both at the children of Milos and those visiting the island. The distinguished teacher Mrs. Sofia Yialouraki captivates readers of all ages and promotes with great skill our island’s geological, historical, economic, environmental, and cultural facets”. This and the author’s previous book The Fayum Portraits and the Mysterious Miss Julia, which was awarded the National Award for Children’s Factual Books in 2008, share the same heroin, little Aleka, who now travels from Alexandria to her new home on Milos. On the island she discovers the Aphrodite of Milos, who, also uprooted from her homeland, weeps and speaks to Aleka’s soul. The book deals with subjects such as exile and the difficulty of adapting to a new home, the power of friendship, and the educational potential of enlightened teachers. It is also a source book on the history, customs, flora, fauna, and minerals of Milos.

On the morning of the same day and on the following day (Thursday, 15 April) 130 students of the last three grades of the island’s primary schools met with Sofia Yialouraki at the MMM for an educational program on the island’s culture, history, and mythology as addressed in the book.

21 April 2010

Created in 1998 by S&B Industrial Minerals in order to honour and display the island’s long and rich metallurgical history, the Milos Mining Museum is celebrating its first decade.

The museum received more than 100,000 visitors from Greece and abroad during its first decade. In 2008, the number of visitors increased by 40% (11,050 visitors) over the previous year.

The year 2008 saw the completion and restructuring of the first-floor exhibition hall, which is dedicated to mined products and their uses in everyday life. The exhibit focuses on the minerals bentonite, perlite, kaolin, quartzitic trachyte (millstone), obsidian, sulfur, manganese, etc, and intends to introduce the visitor to the island’s volcanic mineral wealth.

Since July 2008, the museum hosts a temporary exhibition entitled “Earth – Air Panorama”, with photographs by Nikos Vitsovits, which capture the unique natural beauty of Milos with its striking landscapes and rock formations.

The museum is a major attraction for school students from Milos and elsewhere in Greece, but also for university students from Greece and abroad. The museum produces specially designed educational programs that focus on environmental awareness and amateur art. Visitors have shown a particular interest in the museum’s “Geological Itineraries”, which include guided visits to mines, rehabilitated mining sites, and sites of particular volcanic and geological interest.

For further information, visit the museum’s web page at: http://www.milosminingmuseum.gr

April

• During the 19th Industrial Minerals International Congress, which was held in Athens, 33 participants from various countries visited Milos and the MMM, on April 3.
• On April 4, the 25 second grade students of the Milos Primary School and their teachers, Mss. K. Ousta and Zournatzi, visited the MMM as part of the school’s environmental education program. The class participates in the program “The Seed, a Source of Life”, which is organized by the Council for Environmental Education of the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment and Cultural Heritage in collaboration with the University of Piraeus, the Agricultural University of Athens, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning, and Public Works. The students were given a guided tour of the MMM and took part in the program “Replanting a native plant of Milos”. S&B Industrial Minerals covered the students’ transport to and from the museum.
• On April 11, forty students of the Ralleio Experimental Girls’ Junior High School of Piraeus visited Milos as part of the “Kallisto” program of open environmental classes. The program included a guided visit of the MMM, during which the students took part in the educational activity entitled “With Colours and Aromas”. Working in teams and aided by their teachers, the students attempted to partially reconstruct the local ecosystem using materials (leaves, branches, seeds, etc) gathered during fieldwork, in order to study the environment. Their trip to Milos also included visits to mines, rehabilitated mining sites, and sites of special geological interest. The students were led by their principal Dr. D. Kalaitzis and the teachers Mss. P. Kalivinou, M. Vekri, and A. Hatzianastasiou.
• On April 14, forty students of the First Professional High School of Petroupoli visited the MMM during a trip entitled “Open Environmental Classes – Environmental Education (Operational Program for Education and Initial Vocational Training ΙΙ)”, which took place under the auspices of the special service for the application of Community Support Framework programs.

May

• On May 16, 27 pre-schoolers of the Plaka and Trypiti kindergartens visited the MMM. S&B Industrial Minerals covered their transport to and from the museum.
• On May 27, 49 students of the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment of the University of Athens visited the MMM.
• On May 28, 28 first-grade students of the Adamas Primary School visited the MMM.
• On May 30, the Primary School of Sifnos island visited the MMM. Its sixty students attended a guided geological tour by the museum’s director, Mr. M. Kantsos.

June

• On June 3, clients of S&B Industrial Minerals from Sweden and Germany visited the MMM.
• On June 6, the Primary School of Serifos island visited the MMM. Its thirty students and their teachers took part in the geological tour organized by the museum.
• On June 17 and 18, 85 students of the private Kosteas-Geitonas Primary School and Junior High School of Athens visited the MMM during their yearly educational trip to Milos, which included a geological tour, a guided museum visit, and educational activities.
• On June 26, twelve students of the First Junior High School of Kaisariani, Athens visited the MMM during an educational trip to Milos.
• A group of students of the University of Graz, Austria, visited the MMM accompanied by professors of the Metsovio National Technical University.

July

• Held at the MMM, the exhibition “Milos, Earth – Air Panorama”, with panoramic and aerial photographs by Nikos Vitsovits, opened on July 12. A book with photographs of the island was presented during the event. G. Tsainis, Mayor of Milos, officials, businessmen, and members of the museum’s board of directors attended the event.
• In mid-July, during the restructuring of the first-floor permanent collection of minerals, the display was enriched with new texts (on boards, with drawings and photographs) on the volcanic creation of Milos and on the properties and uses of the minerals kaolin, baryte, pozzolan, obsidian, and quartzitic trachyte (millstone). Together with the perlite and bentonite displays, they aim to better inform the museum’s visitors on the island’s volcanic mineral wealth.

September

• On September 19, a group of twenty students from the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Heidelberg visited the MMM.

October

• On October 12, 21 clients of S&B Industrial Minerals from Germany participated in a guided tour of the MMM.

Since April 2007, the Milos Mining Museum operates on a new, more flexible organizational and administrative basis as a Non-for-Profit Organization. This change is aimed both at maximizing the museum’s potential, and strengthening its educational role with its active participation in initiatives and activities of international scope, which promote the island’s cultural and tourist development.

The museum’s new organization will facilitate carrying out initiatives to introduce the inhabitants and numerous visitors of Milos to the island’s natural environment and mining activity, and demonstrate the contribution of its geology and mineral wealth to its development.

The Milos Mining Museum was founded by S&B Industrial Minerals in 1998, in order to display and honor the island’s mining history and tradition. Apart from the permanent collection of minerals and rocks, the museum also displays artefacts and audiovisual material that present the island’s unique geology and mining history, and the many everyday life uses of the minerals mined in Milos today. It also provides young visitors with the opportunity to learn more about Milos’s mineral wealth and its significance through specially designed educational activities and games.

The Milos Mining Museum is one of the island’s most popular tourist attractions, with approximately 15,000 visitors yearly. It has been a member of the European Museum Forum since its foundation.

A short history of Planet Earth: the place of Milos in the history of time

(Dowload the document in .pdf format)

On May 10, 2005, S&B Industrial Minerals S.A. hosted an event for the elderly in the projection room of Milos Mining Museum, organized by the Municipality and the Sub-Prefecture of Milos in cooperation with the Mental Health Mobile Unit of Western Cyclades.

More specifically, Social Workers of the Milos Municipality Social Service and the Health and Welfare Office of the island’s Sub-Prefecture took the initiative to motivate and bring into action elderly people, inhabitants of Milos, who experienced withdrawal from their everyday activity, detachment from the social fabric, who deeply felt isolation and loneliness, the usual end of a previously active and efficient working life.

During the event hosted, in this context, by S&B, the company’s activities on the island were presented by a mining engineerIlias Rigopoulos. .Following that, the visitors’ group watched with real interest and emotion a film titled “Those days at the mines of Milos”, an S&B production, scripted and directed by Efi Xiros. .The film presented the activity of the island’s miners, from the period when they were also active members of the working community. They often recognized themselves or their relatives and identified sites and working places where they had worked, too. The film is an integral part of the guided tour for all visitors of the Milos Mining Museum.