Specimens from this locality will be uploaded after my return from Europe around the 5th of July.

Tourmaline from Elba Island

Tourmaline variety elbaite was first described from specimens found on Elba Island.   Since tourmaline is so popular among the many facets of mineralogy and jewelry Elba has a hallowed place as the type locality for this diverse and attractive species.  The island is interesting geologically in that the western third is comprised almost entirely of grantic rocks while the eastern two-thirds are almost all basic with serpentine and the large volcanigenic iron deposits.   The lithium bearing pegmatites are found near eastern the fringes of the granitics and also near the top of Mt Capenne which is in the center of the pluton where lepidolite has been found.

On my first morning (June 6th) here on Elba I am writing this in anticipation of visiting this locality.  I am reminded of the dozens of trips I made to mines in San Diego and Riverside counties of southern California where there are hundreds of pegmatites.  Many weekends were spent traversing the steep gully at the base of the Tourmaline Queen mine looking for tourmalines, beryls and other pegmatite minerals.  All those times I spent picking up tourmalines from the dumps I vaguely recall thinking about the origins of the world elbaite.  Today I hope to find some.  The day is a bit overcast and cool which is nice since there's a bit of hike to get into the mine.  In just an hour or so we'll be heading west from our very nice accomodation (Villa Lydia) and then drop off the road down to the quarry.  I can hardly wait.
 
 

This is a general view of the area where pegmatites are found.  Across the way is one of a dozen or so workings following the strike of the pegmatites.

Videos of the locality (these files are about 1.3 megs and require a bit of time to download if you're using a modem)
My guide and host, Alessandro Genazzani, had the idea to take a short cut down the mid slope of the hill below the road.  Sounds good on paper but it was a 500 meter bush crash before finally reaching the well worn trail.  The shortcut at least provided a nice over view of the tourmaline type locality.. Once we reached the trail it was obvious that it was not a king's ride either.

Upon arriving at the mine I pulled out my video cam and shot this scene.  It did not take long for us to start pounding on rocks.  This place has been visited many times in the past and the ability to find anything is quite difficult as you have to move a lot of rocks to find some of the old pegmatite rocks that have more of the desired species such as tourmaline and beryl.  Alessandro did locate a nice but small specimen (1 cm crystal) of beryl var. goshenite on feldspar matrix.  About 30 minutes later I started digging in an exposed portion of the pegamtite and found several small smoky quartz crystals and a few small elbaites on matrix.  Finally, I took the time to get a video sweep of the mine and then started to pack up the specimens for the haul back up the hill.
 
 

This is a shot of the type locality for tourmaline variety elbaite.  The name of the mine is the Grotta d'Oggi which means Cave of Today in Italian.  This quarry was in operation around 1825 for the production of construction grade granite slabs.

This is a shot on the "bush crash" looking across at some of the exposed pegmatites upslope of the Grotta d'Oggi mine.

This is a shot of the main workings looking below and up. The remnant of the pegmatite can be seen in the upper right portion of the picture.

This is a shot of the pegmatite vein.  Exposed are crystals of schorl, biotite and feldspar. Nothing worth throwing a hammer at... I looked!!

Much of the workings looks like this with abundant blocks of snow white granite.  This stuff is hard too!  With some moving of the rocks, however, some of the old dump material can be found with interesting crystals of elbaite and beryl..

This small pit has narrow exposures of the pegamatite vein and I spent an hour in here chipping out some crystals of elbaite and smoky quartz.

Every now and then I had to pause and look around.  There is a great view of the southern portion of the island overlooking the town of Marina di Campo.

On the trek back up the hill I could not pass by this extraordinarily colorful beetle perched on a flowering yarrow without snapping a picture.

This is a general view of the area known as Spring of the Priest located below the village of San Peiro in Campo.  This outcrop of pegmaties is south of the Grotta d'Oggi workings.  A number of fine tourmalines were recovered from this locality also.

Though we did find some interesting minerals at the site I was able to locate some better specimens with the help of Alessandro and also at a couple of the rockshops in towns on Elba Island.  We did find crystals of schorl, beryl, small etched spessartines and a few small elbaites. Specimens from this locality will be uploaded after my return from Europe around the 5th of July.
 
 

The main Elba Island page
Hematite from Elba
Trinity Mineral Co