Mining began in 1916 and stopped in the beginning of 1918. Kazantzakis was the owner and Zorbas was the foreman, surveilling everything with a watchful eye. There were many tunnels leaning on wooden frames and lit by acetylene lamps. At some point, a tunnel collapsed and a worker was killed. For digging, they used pickaxes, shovels and metal rods with which they manually dug holes for controlled dynamite blasts. They put coal into barrows and loaded a Decauville type cart (with mobile, removable rails) which headed straight to sea, to the Louki areas where it was sorted and emptied on the ship with an overhead system. This business provided work to the residents of Stoupa, as well as the surrounding villages. But due to groundwater the quality of the coal was not that good and mining stopped, shutting down the business. It was reopened by locals for a little while, around 1940.