Gambatesa Mine

Gambesata Mine was a manganese mine primarily extracting braunite for steel production.

It was originally opened in 1876 and worked off and on until 2000, when it was reopened as a ‘working museum’. In 2009, mining ceased, and in 2016 the mine was reopened as a museum.

There seems to be an issue with this mine sometimes being labelled as the “Valgravegia Mine”, but the mine is in the valley “Graveglia” – the Italian word for valley is “Val”. This name comes from “Val Graveglia” mine; an incorrect English name for the mine.

Mindat lists a range of minerals from the site – 153, in fact – seven of which it is the type locality for.

Further reading

• https://www.mindat.org/loc-7020.html
• https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniera_di_Gambatesa
• https://www.showcaves.com/english/it/mines/Gambatesa.html
• http://minieradigambatesa.com/

If you are interested in other classic Italian locales we may have stock from the following locales.

Italian locales

• Ala Valley, Lanzo Valleys, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy
• Gambatesa Mine, Reppia, Ne, Genoa, Liguria, Italy
• Levane, Bucine, Arezzo Province, Tuscany, Italy
• Praborna Mine, Saint-Marcel, Aosta Valley, Italy
• Viù Valley, Lanzo Valleys, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy

For the rest of our Italian stock, see below.

Italy