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Island of Elba in Tuscany - Minerals

After centuries of intensive exploitation, the Elba mines are no longer the working place of miners, but are visited by mineral collectors and researchers. Many old miners know the “tricks of the iron”. With these words they indicate the crystals with stange shapes and colors. Micaceous hematite from Elba with its characteristic roselle crystals is present in all important mineral museums and it was by studying hematite and quarz from Elba that during the 17th century N. Stenone discovered the laws of modern crystallography.

The iron mining areas of the east part of the island with its yards abandoned one after the other is the ideal place for those who like to be surrounded by colorful landscapes of great fascination. The silence and the ancient land, sceneries completely transformed by the activity of man that however seem to have preserved their wild strength, reminding us of the beginning of the world. For those who have mainly scientific interests, the entire Elba and not only the “iron lands”, is a “magnificent open air mineral museum”, as described by Bernardino Lotti, the 19th century geologist who first drew an accurate geological map of the island (today still on sale).

To the west, on Mount Capanne, iron was never excavated, but for at least 150 years researchers and collectors around the world have concentrated their studies on this mountain: in its veins there are beautiful tourmaline and beryl crystals as well as many, often rare minor minerals. It is therefore not strange that the Island of Elba in known around the world for its beauty, its rareness and the scientific interest for its minerals.

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