Rio Mine (Rio Marina Mine), Rio Marina, Elba Island, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italy

The original name is Miniera di Rio, because Rio Marina is born nearby the mine only in XVI century as harbour for ore shipping and soldiers and soprintendant residence.
The iron mine of Rio was surely used by Etruscan and after by Romans; the ore body is hematite, with pyrite at the bed and limonite at the roof. The origin, like in the others mine of east Elba, is hydrothermal and related to the Porto Azzurro monzogranitic intrusion (5.1 MY). The pyrite bed had been the limit of mining exploitation, ended in 1980.
The mine is placed at the North of the Rio Marina small town, 100 meters beyond the town hall.
Mining area is delimited by Monte Giove at the North, by sea at the East and by Grassera torrent valley at the West (approximately 1.1 km width and 1.6 km height) and is formed by several stopes: Bacino, Filon basso, Pozzofondi, Bottaccio (or Sanguinacci), Antenna (or L'Antenna), Rosseto, Falcacci (or Le Cavacce), Piè d'Ammone, Vigneria, Zuccoletto, Valle Giove. Some of this had been very important for Mineralogy: very probably was from studies on Rio hematites of the Florence Museum that Niel Stensen expressed the 1st Law of the Cristallography.
References:
E. Pini, 1777 - Osservazioni mineralogiche sopra la miniera di ferro di Rio e d'altre parti dell'Isola d'Elba. - G. Marelli, Milano.
F. Gillieron, 1959 - Osservazioni sulla geologia dei giacimenti di ferro dell'Isola d'Elba orientale. - L'Ind. Miner., X, fasc. 1.
N. Calanchi, G. Dal Rio, A. Prati, 1976 - Miniere e minerali dell'Elba orientale - Tip. Cacciari, Bologna.
P. Orlandi, F. Pezzotta, 1996 - Minerali dell’Isola d’Elba - Ed. Novecento Grafico, Bergamo.
L. Rossato, M. Benvenuti, 2002 - Guida al sentiero geo-mineralogico attraverso la Miniera di Rio Marina - Regione Toscana, Firenze.