Campolecciano mine, Rosignano Marittimo, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Campolecciano mine	Mine
Rosignano Marittimo	Municipality
Livorno Province	Province
Tuscany	Region
Italy	Country

Translation of https://parcoculturaledicamaiano.toscana.it/le-miniere,-le-mineralizzazioni-ed-i-minerali.php :

The Campolecciano magnesite mine had a fairly limited history in time but together with the others in the area, it represented the most important Italian source of supply of this mineral [i.e. magnesite] in the early decades of the 1900s and in particular in the period of the First World War, when it was no longer possible to import magnesite from Austria (Styria).

Therefore, it was a strategically significant mine as magnesium oxide was obtained from magnesite with which refractory bricks were built to line the blast furnaces for the production of steel. The demand for steel was enormously increased due to the needs imposed by the war.

We have a contemporary description of this mine by Aloisi, who wrote in 1919: "The nearby Campolecciano deposit is located north of the previous one and was initially presented in a slightly different form; here too there were relatively powerful veins, but much less regular than in Castiglioncello and intertwining in various ways with each other… With the continuation of the works, however, the analogy with the Castiglioncello field has grown, the strands have become more regular as the research has become deeper, so that the assumption… that the two deposits are actually one dependent on the other, acquires ever greater likelihood. In Campolecciano, until now, the exploitation has been carried out more than anything else, but currently, works are being carried out to proceed here in the tunnel as well; production is currently 5-6,000 tons per year".

The cultivation of the deposit, which began in 1914, continued until 1929 and ended definitively in 1939 after years of less intensive exploitation, essentially due to the high silica impurities present in the mineral which made its industrial use difficult.

Currently, the remains of the ancient processes are still visible, which were and still are the destination of passionate researchers who, exploring the area with the aim of finding mineral samples, made a very important discovery a few decades ago: melanophlogite.

This very rare mineral, a polymorph of silica, occurs in globular aggregates of 1-3 mm perfectly clear and colourless, completely similar to dew drops, and less frequently in whitish aggregates of cubic crystals or even in small isolated crystals.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References