Scheuchzerite

specimen number:
2354037

location:
Gambatesa Mine, Reppia, Liguria, Italy

description:
Orange brown radiating crystal groupings of this rare mineral measuring to 0.1 cm in diameter across one side of matrix.

Located in Val Graveglia near Reppia in Liguria, Italy, the famous Gambatesa Mine is an underground manganese deposit hosted in Jurassic metacherts (jaspers) formed within a ophiolitic sequence. Industrial underground extraction began in 1876 and turned Gambatesa into one of Europe's major sources of manganese ore, primarily braunite, before commercial mining ceased and transformed the tunnels into a historic tourist mine and museum. Highly prized by mineral collectors for its exceptional diversity of rare species, the mine is one of the few global localities for scheuchzerite, an extremely rare yellow-orange sodium manganese vanadium silicate mineral that crystallizes in hydrothermal fractures within the oxidized manganese ores.

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