Lanzi Mine (Cava del Piombo; Buca del Piombo), Campiglia Marittima, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Lanzi Mine (Cava del Piombo; Buca del Piombo)	Mine (Abandoned)
Campiglia Marittima	Commune
Livorno Province	Province
Tuscany	Region
Italy	Country

Abandoned mine that exploited a Cu-Pb-Ag-Zn sulphide deposit associated with hedenbergite-ilvaite skarn, located in the Valle dei Lanzi (also known as Valle di San Silvestro). Both open pit and underground mining operations were performed in this area during the 19th century; the open pit works are known as Cava del Piombo or Buca del Piombo.

The mine consists of various stopes, galleries, and shafts (Levels 0-9, Pozzo Walter, Gallerione, Pozzo Re, Pozzo Lanzi, Pozzo Gowet, Galleria Rogers, Galleria Caprareccia, and Galleria Collins inferiore and superiore).

Ilvaite crystals (up to 3 cm), associated with clear and milky crystals of quartz on a matrix of fibrous hedenbergite, have been typically found at levels 1-4. These specimens, as well as those from Le Marchand stope at the Temperino mine, show strong analogies with some specimens from Dal'negorsk. Noteworthy amethystine quartz crystals have been found at Galleria Collins inferiore.

Large concretionary banded masses of "calamine" (smithsonite and hemimorphite) with aurichalcite on limonite matrix were observed in the 19th century at the oxidised outcrops of the sulphide deposit (Lanzi, level 0; Pozzo Re - Cava di Poggio Palazzetto area).

The presence of various sulphates (epsomite, hexahydrite, melanterite, and a member of jarosite-natrojarosite series) has been described by Conticini et al. (1980) at Gallerione, in the so-called "Grotta della johannsenite" (whose name is due to the occurrence of spectacular rosettes and bands of johannsenite, replacing the marbles derived from “Calcare Massiccio” contact metamorphism).


Note: in the 1650s, under the rule of Cosimo I de' Medici, a series of prospections for argentiferous galena were performed in the area of Valle di San Silvestro, which became known as Valle dei Lanzi. In fact, the German-speaking prospectors and metallurgists, who came from Tyrol and Carinthia, were locally called "Lanzi", after the word "Lanzichenecchi", i.e. Landsknechts, the German mercenary soldiers who passed through Tuscany and sacked Rome thirty years before. Between 1556 and 1562 there were various attempts to exploit argentiferous galena at many outcrops, but the main works were performed just below Rocca di San Silvestro (the place is identifiable with the so-called Cava di Poggio Palazzetto) and, eastwards, at the modern open-cut (level 0) of Lanzi mine.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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