Macchia Escafrullina Mine, Nibbiaia, Rosignano Marittimo, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Macchia Escafrullina Mine	Mine
Nibbiaia	Village
Rosignano Marittimo	Municipality
Livorno Province	Province
Tuscany	Region
Italy	Country

Translation of https://parcoculturaledicamaiano.toscana.it/le-miniere,-le-mineralizzazioni-ed-i-minerali.php :

Research began in 1938 for the cultivation of iron sulphide found in fair quantities in a vein similar to those of Castiglioncello and Campolecciano. The searches were abandoned after the extraction of a few thousand tons of iron ore due to its extreme alterability and the high temperatures existing in the tunnels.

A detailed description of this deposit was carried out by Marinelli in 1955, of which the following excerpt is reported: “pyrite… always presents itself with a concretionary aspect and with the typical shell structure: it often includes pisolites of magnesite and concretions of chalcedony. It is always greenish-grey in colour and shows metallic reflections only on fresh surfaces. The alteration rate of this mineral is truly exceptional. A few days of exposure to air are enough to see a 'flowering' of white needles of ferrous sulphate on its surface. The heaps of ore abandoned on the yard of the mine were thus almost completely destroyed by more than ten years of exposure to the elements: there are only a few skeletal remains of sulphide evidently more resistant than the remaining mass of the mineral ".

The skeletal sulphide was identified as: "... made up entirely of marcasite, also concreted, with elongated crystals orthogonal to the separation surface of the shells and often twinned ... The greater resistance to oxidation of this mineral has allowed its conservation and highlighted in the piles of oxidized mineral ".

But the most abundant mineral of the mine was magnesite, present in various aspects including the most characteristic and interesting one formed by aggregates of centimeter elements that have a pisolithic internal structure and a polyhedral external shape.

Additional minerals of the mine are chalcedony and dolomite, and others of secondary origin among which the “chromiferous ochres” with a beautiful blue-green or emerald green colour stand out.

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