Realmonte Mine, Contrada Scavuzzo, Realmonte, Agrigento Province, Sicily, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Realmonte Mine	Mine (Active)
Contrada Scavuzzo	Town
Realmonte	Commune
Agrigento Province	Province
Sicily	Autonomous Region
Italy	- not defined -

Realmonte salt mine, located 2.5 km from the little town of Realmonte at Contrada Scavuzzo, is operated by the company Italkali and is one of the most important salt mines in Sicily.

The mine, whose underground workings extend about 25 km under the territory of the municipalities of Realmonte, Siculiana and Raffadali, exploits one of the largest salt deposits within the Caltanissetta evaporite basin. Although originally forseen to exploit both salt rock and kainite, until now (2016) the mine produces only halite with a production capacity of about 1 Mt/a. The total length of its tunnels is about 130 km, at depths ranging from between +60 m a.s.l. to -252 m a.s.l.

Four main depositional units (from A to D) have been recognised in the Realmonte mine, where the Messinian salt reaches a total thickness of 400-600 m (Decima & Wezel, 1971; Decima, 1978; Lugli et al., 1999; Roveri et al., 2006):
- Unit A: evenly laminated grey halite with white anhydrite nodules and laminae passing upward to grey massive halite beds; the unit is up to 50 m thick;
- Unit B: massive even layers of grey halite interbedded with light grey thin kainite laminae and with minor grey centimetre polyhalite spherulites and laminae and anhydrite laminae; the upper part of the unit contains at least six light grey kainite layers up to 18 m-thick; total thickness is about 100 m;
- Unit C: white halite layers 10-20 cm thick separated by irregular dark grey mud laminae and containing minor light grey polyhalite and
anhydrite laminae; the total thickness is 70-80 m;
- Unit D: grey anhydritic mudstone (15-20 m thick) passing to an anhydrite laminite sequence followed by grey halite millimetre to centimetre layers intercalated with white anhydrite laminae; the total thickness is 60 m.
Monophase or two-phase fluid microinclusions in halite are abundant.



A curiosity: an underground Roman Catholic church has been built within the tunnels. Altar, pulpit, stoups, bas-reliefs, statues: nearly everything inside the church is carved out of rock salt. A mass in honour of Saint Barbara (patron saint of miners) is held annually on December 4th.

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References