Environmental problems and industrial archaeology in the Iglesiente mining district

This field trip in the Iglesiente district led the WRI-10 participants to visit the vestiges of an intensive, past mining exploitation. The dismantled mine of Monteponi, near Iglesias, was one of the largest mines for the extraction of Pb and Zn in Italy. At Monteponi Pb and Zn ores in Lower Cambrian limestone-dolomites were exploited at increasing depths over time. Here, a dewatering system was in operation down to - 200 m. The first stop at the abandoned mining complex of Monteponi included (i) a visit to the Villamarina gallery that encounters, along its course, the shafts «V. Emanuele» and «Sella», (ii) a visit to the compressor room that represented the lifeblood of the mine, and finally (iii) a visit to the hill of «Red Muds», derived from electrolytic treatment of zinc ore, marking the landscape around Monteponi. The trip continued up to the mining village of Nebida. Along the main road to Nebida the red- violet continental conglomerate («Puddinga»), in angular unconformity (Ordovician unconformity) on the Cambrian slates, was observed. The last stop concerned the ingenious underground ore transportation and storage system at Porto Flavia.