Beauvoir Quarry
Échassières, Vichy, Allier, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
An enormous, active, Kaolinite quarry in the Beauvoir Granite. Excellent specimens of wavellite, variscite, and plumbogummite can be found here, although it is unclear whether any access or collecting is allowed.
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Mindat lists 91 minerals from the site, with many being really rather interesting – primarily quality micromount size minerals.
The mineralisation is quite mixed including some silver ore and some radioactive minerals. Crystalline turquoise and iodargyrite are found here, too.
The site was originally discovered in 1848 by Pierre-Antoine Jouhet, and the first mines were opened in 1852. The most recent owners of the site, Imerys, recently explored for lithium deposits in the area, which is now known as the EMILI project and may be Frances first lithium mine.
Further reading
- https://www.mindat.org/loc-45991.html
- https://emili.imerys.com/en/history-of-the-site
- https://emili.imerys.com/en/emili-project
If you are interested in other classic French locales we may have stock from the following locales.
French locales
- Beauvoir quarry, Échassières, Vichy, Allier, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Col de Pré Guittard, Arnayon, Die, Drôme, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Croix-de-Pallières, Saint-Félix-de-Pallières, Gard, France
- Etang de Reliez, Lachaux, Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Gabe Gottes Mine, Sankt Jakob vein, Neuenberg, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Colmar-Ribeauvillé, Haut-Rhin, Grand Est, France
- La Verrière, Les Ardillats, Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- La Bessière Quarry, Saint-Genès-la-Tourette, Issoire, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Les Molérats Mine, Saint-Prix, Autun, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
- Mont Denise, Espaly-Saint-Marcel, Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Mont Semiol, Châtelneuf, Montbrison, Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Plan-du-Lac, Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans, Grenoble, Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Puy de Menoyre, Menet, Mauriac, Cantal, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Saint-Jean-le-Centenier, Largentière, Ardèche, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Ste Barbe vein, Montmins mining district, Échassières, Vichy, Allier, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
- Tistoulet mine, Padern, Narbonne, Aude, Occitanie, France
For the rest of our French stock, see below.
France
Fossils from France - Minerals from France