Funtana Raminosa Mine, Gadoni, Nuoro Province, Sardinia, Italy

In this mining area, at occurrences named Su Fruscu (at 550 m above sea level) and San Giuseppe there were made explorative tunnels to verify the consistence of mineralizations.

This area has been very important for copper minerals probably since the Bronze Age. In fact, at the end of 1800 there were discovered the traces of very old extractive and mining activity which it was dated at Nuragic Age (Bronze Age) (Begemann et al., 2001).
These copper occurrences were surely mined also around 700 BC during Arabian Occupation of Southern Italy. In this period the Arabic conquerors (known as Saraceni) used these mines and the name of the river which crosses the mining area (Saraxinus River) is a proof of that (Saraxinus River means Saraceni River).

References:
- Dessau, G. (1937): Studi sulla miniera di Fontana Raminosa (Sardegna). Periodico di Mineralogia, 8, 177-215.
- Ogniben, G. & De Pieri, R. (1967): I minerali di alterazione di Su Fruscu (Giacimento di Funtana Raminosa, Sardegna). Periodico di Mineralogia, 36, 659-682.
- Frau, F., Rizzo, R., Sabelli, C. (1998): Creedite from Sardinia, Italy: the first European occurrence. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Monatshefte, 1998, 495–504.
- Stara, P., Rizzo, R., Sabelli, C., Ibba, A. (1999): I minerali di Funtana Raminosa. Rivista Mineralogica Italiana, 1/1999, 10-27.
- Friedrich Begemann, Sigrid Schmitt-Strecker and Fulvia Lo Schiavo (2001): Chemical composition and lead isotopy of copper and bronze from Nuragic Sardinia. European Journal of Archaeology 4, xx-xx. http://www.sagepub.co.uk/frame.html?http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journals/details/issue/abstract/ab015050.html)]