Val Toppa Mine, Marmazza Valley (Toppa Valley), Pieve Vergonte, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Piedmont, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Val Toppa Mine	Group of Mines
Marmazza Valley (Toppa Valley)	Valley
Pieve Vergonte	Commune
Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province	Province
Piedmont	Region
Italy	Country

Val Toppa Mine, Marmazza Valley (Toppa Valley), Ossola Valley, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Piedmont, Italy

According to the tradition, gold in Val Toppa was already mined in Roman times and by the Saracens (Amoretti, 1794). Under the name of Val Toppa Mine are presently indicated three groups of underground workings above Pieve Vergonte:

- the Casaletti prospects, located near Casaletti locality (331 m a.s.l.) on the right side of the Marmazza stream;

- the Cropino mine, located near Case Cropino (881 m a.s.l.) on the left side of the Marmazza stream;

- the Tagliata galleries, located between Casa Fontàn (793 m a.s.l.) and Alpe Taià or Alpe Tagliata (1154 m). The main galleries, from below upwards, are Galleria Canteria (740 m a.s.l.), Galleria Trifoli, Galleria no. 5, Galleria no. 4, Galleria no. 3, Galleria no. 2 (822 m a.s.l.), Galleria no. 1, Galleria no. 0, and Galleria Maffiola. These overlapping galleries are aligned with a group of gold-bearing veins (known as Val Toppa, Piatti or Massa Roberts, Ovest, Marmo Rosso, Est, and Piciocca).

In the second half of the 19th century, for a certain period this area was mined under different mining concessions, named Fontanelle (Fontanelle-Casaletti), Cropino, Tagliata no. 1, Tagliata no. 2. and Tagliata no. 3. The Cropino concession was exploited by the French company "Société des Mines et Usines de Cropino". The concession Tagliata no. 2, granted to the British company "The Pestarena United Gold Mining Company Ltd." (1864-1894), soon became the aggregation centre of all mining activities in Val Toppa. In the last period of activity (1936-1951), the mine was operated by the Italian Company "Stabilimenti di Rumianca".

Galleria no. 2 has been transformed in recent times into an ecomuseum (see coordinates).


An interesting mineral accompanying gold, sulphides, and carbonates in the hydrothermal quartz veins is scheelite, yellow to red-brown in colour (Le Neve Forster, 1869 and 1870; and other authors). This scheelite is very rich in europium (110 μg/g) and strontium (3 mg/g); molybdenum (<0.3 μg/g) is practically absent (Rigault, 1956 a, b; Richard et al., 1981). In a precedent study on the scheelite photoluminescence (Servigne, 1939), a sample from this occurrence was erroneously indicated as from "Saint-Marcel (Domodossola)".

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References