Special exhibitions
SICILIAN SULPHUR
When you talk about minerals from Sicily, immediately you think sulphur in magnificent crystals and minerals associated to it. Actually, sulphur has been one of the most important mining wealth of Sicily.
The interested area of the great ore-bodies is Central Sicily, including Caltanissetta, Enna and Agrigento Provinces, Palermo Province with Lercara Friddi basin and Catania Province, as until 1928 it was a part of the current Enna Province. Hundreds of sulphur mines were situated in these provinces and the names of some of them, for example Cozzo Disi, Giumentaro and Floristella, remind the fans of extraordinary mineral specimens.
The area has been exploited from time immemorial with remains of mining dated back to 200 b.C., but sulphur production leaps forward remarkably from the half of the XVII century.
Used in the industrial production of soda and essential ingredient for gunpowder, the mineral assumed a considerable strategic importance and Sicily became the sulphur leader in the world.
Memory of these mines is nowadays vivid thank to the birth of a mining park where the structures till now preserved and important mining materials have been protected. Some of these will be displayed in a special area at the Bologna Mineral Show.
THE MINERALS OF THE SULPHUR MINES
Talking about sulphur mines doesn’t mean only sulphur.
Sicily was famous and renowned not only for the sulphur mining production but also for the specimens, dug out from these mines during the years of exploitation, which enriched Museums and private collections.
Generally the minerals associated to sulphur were aragonite, gypsum, celestine and calcite, all perfectly crystallized in specimens unique in the world with a great aesthetic impact. Melanophlogite comes from Caltanissetta Province and Giona Mine is the type-locality.
These specimens are still shown in important Museums and fascinating private collections.
During the Bologna Mineral Show, a huge exhibition of minerals from sulphur mines will be displayed in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History of Milan and the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences of Turin; an important contribution is also offered by Renato and Adriana Pagano, who boast of a collection particularly rich in minerals from Sicily, together with an iconographic documentation, memorabilia and old books now nowhere to be found.
THE SICILY METEORITES
In a showcase curated by Matteo Chinellato will be exposed samples of the meteorite falls or recovered in Sicily, type Girgenti from the NHM of Milan and from the Matteo Chinellato personal collection, Messina from the Matteo Chinellato Collection and for the first time the meteorites of Patti and Mineo from the University of Perugia.
The Bologna Mineral Show awaits you in the 23-25 march 2012 at the UNIPOL Arena | via Gino Cervi, 2 - 40033 Casalecchio di Reno (BO)
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