Brusson Mine, Brusson, Aosta Valley, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Brusson Mine	Mine (Tourist Attraction)
Brusson	Commune
Aosta Valley	Autonomous Region
Italy	Country

The coordinates mark the top of the Chamousira mountain.

This is one of the most important Italian gold mines within an Alpine area. Locally named Chamousira mine. "Chamousira" is said to mean "the place visited by chamois".

3 Veins/lodes were worked:

- The Fenillaz vein, one of the largest and exploited on 7 levels, has an average thickness of between 60 and 80 cm. It is E-W directed and is tilted 28°–45° toward N-NNW;

- The Speranza vein (branching off of the Fenillaz vein) strikes W-E, dips 25°-30° N, has an average thickness of 30 cm and is worked from 2 shafts;

- The Gae Bianche vein strikes W-E, dips 30°-40° N, has an average thickness of 30 cm to 1 m but with a more complex and articulated development, and is worked from 2 shafts.

According to Reinhold (1916), an estimated 30,000 tons of gangue containing an average of 16 g of gold per ton remains in the mine.

The total extent of the tunnels is around 1,600 metres (other sources say 2,500 metres).

The gold was in quartz veins mixed with other sulphides, hosted by gneiss and metamorphic calc-schists (typical orogenic gold deposit with low salinity).

The first documentary information on the cultivation of the site dates back to the 13th century.

Worked by the Swiss "Société des Mines d'or de l'Evançon" from 1898 to 1902 and subsequently (other sources say partly simultaneously) by the English "The Evançon Gold Mining Company Ltd" until 1908 (other sources say until 1910, 1911, 1912, and even 1915).

After the mine's closure, the Swiss mineralogy professor Carl Schmidt commissioned the young Dutch student Thomas Reinhold to write a dissertation on "Die Goldpyritgänge von Brusson in Piemont" ("The gold pyrite veins of Brusson in Piedmont"). Reinhold's dissertation was based on Schmidt's personal documentation on the mine and that of the now liquidated gold company.

Reinhold immediately got to work and completed the dissertation on March 8, 1916.

Some excerpts of his text:

"The gold is found almost exclusively as free gold. At first glance, the gold finds appear to be irregularly distributed in patches throughout the entire vein."

"The gold enrichments described here can be very considerable and in rare cases have a local extent of several cubic meters. For example, on May 29, 1908, 40 kg of gold was found in 462 kg of vein mass at the upper end of gallery No. 4, 185-187 m from the mouth, approximately in the middle of the mine. A neighbouring ore nest of 244 kg vein mass contained 28 kg of gold. In February 1909, a gold-rich zone of 58 kg of quartz with 3 kg of free gold was found between adits 4 and 5."

Reinhold also meticulously drew a map of many of the individual large gold finds of the past, almost like a treasure map, with a description of his mineralogical knowledge, "… that the richest gold sites were mainly found where the vein intersects the mica schist near the limestone."

He also stated that "the total yield of ore in the years 1904–1909 amounts to 716.953 kg of gold."

The concession was taken over by the textile industrialists Rivetti in 1932, and then from 1954 until 1990 (other sources say until 1983), it was exploited by the Filippa family of Gressoney-Saint-Jean.

It is estimated that between four and six metric tons of gold have been extracted from the mine during its operation, but due to lack of mining data, this has not been confirmed.

From the 1970s until 2012, with the greatest influx from the 1980s to 1996, the mine was subject to illegal mining.

Since there were never any security checks in place, anyone could enter the mine and stay for several days, extracting the remaining gold but also putting the stability of the site at risk.

Since 2012, the Municipality of Brusson has provided for the total closure of the site, thus prohibiting entry and further destruction.

Currently, the concession belongs to the municipality of Brusson, which follows its tourist development.

In 2012, the plan to transform the Brusson gold mines into a museum centre was announced, which was opened in 2015.

Level 7 of the Fenillaz lode (100 m) was opened to the public as a tourist mine on 16 June 2016, followed by level 6 (70 m) on 28 May 2022.

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