Calamita’s mine is a huge scare in the homonymous mountain, starting from over 400 mt and descending down to the level of the sea. That’s the sea of Elba’s island, which attracts loads of tourists during the summer’s season. Calamita’s mine is a place so rich of contrast to appear almost surreal. In the higher sites, such as Macei Alti, one walks between plains of fine stones bordered by walls that look excavated with teeth.
From the bush, a big animal, maybe a wild pig, noisily run away disappearing between the wild. Over my head, big and strange ravens caw and turn like vultures around the one that dared to invade their territory. Since long time ago, this mine is not anymore land for humans. The hits of the sledgehammer bring up some Granats with little cubic crystals of Pyrite, which shine under the sun. Various Sulphates paint of blue and green some part of the walls, same as an amateur painter wanted to make gentler the look of these rude walls. Even some spot of Azzurrite come out sporadically among green patterns of the Malachite.

Descended to the level of the road, one arrives to a building that once upon a time might have hosted the offices, probably populated by directors, chiefs, and so on. From here there is a perfect view over most of the sites of the mine.. a perfect place to control the ongoing operations. It looks like a relaxing place, surrounded by pine trees, close to the road, and with a beautiful view over the coast.
More below, the scenery changes suddenly. The environment becomes hard and rude… it is the empire of rocks and stones. There is a point where a rocky hill seems to have been cut deeply by a gigantic axe. The huge crevice gives access to another hidden site of the mine. Only the blue sea below reminds us that we still are on the Earth, and not in some arid planet lost in the space.

		Descending further, one arrives to the proximity of an old building that seems a big monument to the word “abandon”. Rust, broken glasses, encrusted and ruined walls.. a huge structure stuck to the steep rocks. Maybe it was an operational centre, where the minerals were selected and processed. Once upon a time this place must be had very crowded, full of poor devils in search of a even poorer salary.
Hard, poor and short was the life of the miners of Calamita’s mine. The mine took away many lives in the most various ways: sometime suddenly because of accidents, sometime more silently and slowly, by sickness that reduced the expectation of life to 40 years or so. There is no need to think too much.. it is enough to stop few seconds to perceive how many sufferance must have been generated in this place. Now, there is only silence and abandon.. and some minerals for the collectors. Surely, for a mineral lover, a place like this is very fascinating.. so wide, wild, rich of minerals, but is almost impossible to avoid thinking that the same place was deeply hated by the miners. If the ghost of those miners could see me, then they surely would do it with a silent, surprised and maybe irritated expression “this guy has a comfortable life.. so.. for what kind of reason he comes here in such a kind of hellish place?”. Yes, they should think something like that.

Descending more they appear more monuments to the word “abandon”: enormous excavators leaved as prey for the rust, for the atmospheric agents and for the salts of the sea. The sensation of abandon is clear.. the machineries are still there, in the middle of the site, same as the operators suddenly ran away in front of a imminent danger.
Now the gigantic excavators are slowly closing a cycle: they was built with the iron of this mine, they died here, and here they are now transforming themselves in rust, iron oxide.. exactly what they was once upon a time. Somehow, the nature gets back what the human took before. And finally we reach the level of the sea.. today I got some Pirrotine, some crystals of Siderite, Azzurrite, Malachite, and some unspecified stuff derived from Iron.

		The sites nearer to the sea have an aspect so surreal that a German family continues to makes photos at each step. The eye is caught by a small multicolour crater, which seems a perfect place for a science fiction movie. Passing over a rusted plant for the selection of the mineral, one approaches to a desert beach. We descend to the beach in search of a “normal” atmosphere. But.. no way: we should have known that the “normality” is pretty rare here. I never seen a beach like this: the sand is black as the ink, and it’s very heavy.. oh, yep.. it’s made of iron oxide.
Now it’s easy to understand why there is nobody in this beach. The sand, for its color and its chemical constitution, under the burning sun becomes hot like hell. We could cook some eggs on it, if we have had them. A surreal beach inserted into a surreal context. Walking toward Cima Ripalti, in the opposite direction, we find a beach that we can definitely categorize as “normal”. In fact, the beach is populated by tourists who lay down like lizards under the sun. Up to the rocky walls of the mine, there are numerous groups of seagulls keeping their eyes stuck on those “giant lizards”. Here it is, maybe, the reason why this piece of coast is also known as “La Costa dei Gabbiani” (literally, Seagulls’ Coast). Finally it is come the moment to dive into these crystal-clear waters, forgetting for a while the few minerals collected.

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