Sardinia's Mine
Masua Area

From Gonnesa town you can follow the road to Nebida- Masua. This is one of the most beautiful area in this part of Sardinia, with wonderful scenary, landscape and beaches.

Coast from Nebida to Masua with Pan di Zucchero

Almost all the mines in this area were worked for galena and blend. Among the most interesting place as an mining historical point of view there is the area of Porto Flavia. Here a revolutionary system for trasporting ore  enabled merchant ships to be loaded in a few  dozen hours as oppesed to a week of hard work by team of labourers. The ore was loaded directly into the holds of the vessels from inside the mountain.

The main mines of the area are : Nebida, Masua, Acquaresi, Canalgrande, Gutturu Cardaxiu,Planusartu, Buggerru and Cala Domestica

Nebida Mine with the Lamarmora washery ruins

Nebida Mine  was operational until 1981 the main minerals found here where : anglesite, aragonite, barite, cerussite, smithsonite, hemimorphite.

Pan di zucchero and the Porto Flavia area (left)	Old Dumps and work of Masua
Masua Mine plants	Porto Flavia entrance

Masua Mine  was worked for galena and closed in the nineties. The minerals were almost the same as Nebida but nice yellow -green cadmium-smithonites were collected here.

Acquaresi Mine  ruins	Cala Domestica (railway track )

Cala Domestica today look like a little paradise. Once bustling with the daily work of trasporting ore. Ore was loaded into a large ore bin , using the first electric railway running along the water's edge from acquaresi mine.