Groppera Alp, Madesimo, Sondrio Province, Lombardy, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Groppera Alp	Mountain
Madesimo	Municipality
Sondrio Province	Province
Lombardy	Region
Italy	- not defined -

Description: http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,105,308669,364058#msg-364058 In my opinion the mineral Kyanite has been added without any valid justification or by mistake. Because: 1) the reported bibliographic reference "(Brugger J. (1996): The Fe, Mn, (V, Sb, As, Be, W) deposits of Val Ferrera (Graubünden, Switzerland). Unpublished PhD Thesis, Univ. Basel. 188 p." has nothing to do neither with the locality nor with the paragenesis in question. 2) I personally surveyed both Alpe Groppera and Torrente Scalcoggia collecting sites several times since their discovery in 1984, never observing any trace of kyanite, especially in macroscopic samples. 3) the posphates are hosted both in quartz rich layers and in mica rich layers of what appears to be a "low (green schists ?) metamorphic grade" meta-pelite \ meta-psammite interpreted to be part of the oldest (permo-triassic ??) sedimentary cover of the Suretta Nappe. Although not impossible the occurrence of Kyanite in such contest would be unsual, In addition the occurrence of pyrofillite at Torrente Scalcoggia is not in favour of the co-occurence of Kyanite (pyrophillite is replaced by Kyanite (or Andalusite) + Quartz at temperature higher than about 400°C. I am not saying that is impossible to found some Kyanite, even in macroscopic samples not far from the described sites. That's because rock masses belonging to the "hercinian basement" outcrop not far from both sites.

Type Locality:

Description: In phengitic quartz.