The mines of Traversella and Brosso: the iron of the Valchiusella valley

In depth

Nine pages for those who want to know more: the method, the dates, the views compared and the places to visit, for adults and teachers; then five more technical pages, designed for upper secondary schools, on skarn, on Sella's separator, on pyrite, on transport and on minerals. Every hypothetical sentence carries its label and every section its sources.

1. 1. How we knowReports from the time, today's studies, popular information pages and maps: what "we know", "probable" and "uncertain" mean and what we still do not know.
2. 2. The datesThe essential dates from the birth of the rock, about 30 million years ago, to the exploration permit of 2026, each with its source.
3. 3. Who thinks otherwiseRomans at Traversella and Brosso, furnaces for iron or for pyrite, the closure of Brosso, the privilege of 1781 and the other dates on which the sources do not agree.
4. 4. Where to see it todayThe museum and the tunnel at Traversella, Brosso and the Strada delle Vote, with opening hours and prices as of the date they were consulted.
5. 5. The Traversella skarnHow the Traversella magma turned marble into skarn and why the magnetite gathered right there.
6. 6. Sella's separatorQuintino Sella's electromagnet machine described by Burci in 1860: how it was made, how it worked and what it yielded.
7. 7. Pyrite: vitriol and sulphuric acidFrom discarded pyrite to green vitriol and to the Sclopis' sulphuric acid, with the figures of the Zampari report of 1862.
8. 8. Carrying the oreOre on people's backs, by mule, on roads, on inclined planes and on cableways; then the water that drove the machines.
9. 9. The minerals of TraversellaMagnetite, scheelite, ferro-ferri-hornblende and the other species that make Traversella a locality famous among collectors.