Sardinia's Mine

S. Giovanni mine & S. Barbara Cave

S. Giovanni mine : was famous among the mineral collectors expecially for the nice samples of blue aragonite , calcite and barite. Inside the mine there is the cave of Santa Barbara ( closed to the public ) with walls covered with barite XX.   

Now the mine is closed and a process to do a Geo- Mining park of the area is started.

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S. Giovanni Mine Monteponi mine , seen from S. Giovanni Plants

This year for the first time it's was possilble for the people to visit the S. Giovanni mine  and the famous S.Barbara cave.

This cave was discovered in 1952 during the mine works and fortunatelly was preserved till our days . The cave is famous for being one of the most old as it was fomaed in Paleozoic rocks. and the walls of the cave are completely covered by Brown green barite XX that later was partly covered by classic aragonite stalactites and stalagmites.

Visiting the Cave is simply wonderful for a mineral collector it's like to  be in an enourmus geode. I recommend it if you are in this area of Sardinia. I hope the photos will gave you an idea.

 

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The Map to see were the cave id located inside the mine

 

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look at the wall of   barite and aragonite !!!

 

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