Sa Duchessa Mine, Domusnovas, South Sardinia Province, Sardinia, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Sa Duchessa Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Domusnovas	Commune
South Sardinia Province	Province
Sardinia	Autonomous Region
Italy	Country

Sa Duchessa Zn - Pb - Cu mine Vieille-Montagne.

The Sa Duchessa mine is located in the municipality of Domusnovas (CI). It can be reached along the foothills that lead from the village to the wooded valleys of the Oridda. After about 3-4 km you reach a junction: the one on the left leads to the mine of Perda Niedda and the one on the right to Sa Duchessa.
Photo by Gian Piero Piras.

The mining area was already the subject of prospecting in 1852.
The zinc mine, called "Cea Spreni" or Sa Duchessa, was declared open and accessible by the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Trade on 24 May 1870.
On 13 September 1870 the concession was requested by Ing. Ernesto Belval, representative of the Civil Society of the Mines of Iglesias.
The mine concession, covering some 285 hectares, was granted directly to the Société Anonyme de la Vieille Montagne from Liège, Belgium on 9 October 1873, who replaced the rights of the Civil Society of Iglesias.
The exploitation of the zinc ore veins continued for many years with almost constant production.


Photo collection VMHeritage.

At the top of the photo you can see the inclined plane that supplies the calamine from the Masses Alberto.
According to “Annales des mine Tome 1876” the production that year was 50,000 quintal métrique or 5,000 ton (1 quintal métr. = 100 kg).
19 people worked underground and 107 men were occupied at the processing plant.
Two years later, other sources mention a production of 10,750 tonnes and a workforce of 210 workers for 1878.

Around 1930 the first signs of depletion began to show with a clear decline in production. To cope with the substantial management costs, the company started operating the clusters of Cu oxides.
In 1934 the concession was sold to the Italian Copper Society, which gave a new impetus to the extraction of copper minerals. The activity was suspended because of the war and at the end of the war the various attempts to resume the work were useless. In 1961 the concession was acquired by SAMIM spa and ten years later the company finally closed the mine.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References