Pollucite with Heulandite

specimen number:
1052787

location:
La Speranza, San Piero in Campo, Campo nell'Elba, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy

description:
Colorless crystallized pollucite on a granitic matrix with crystals of heulandite. Interesting combination piece for this famous locality. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video and dates to the very early 20th century.

The La Speranza quarry, located near San Piero in Campo on the southwestern side of the Island of Elba, Italy, is a notable mineral locality situated within the peripheral zone of the Monte Capanne granitic pluton. Geologically, the site exposes late Miocene lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite dikes that intruded into the surrounding monzogranite and granodiorite host rocks. These specialized pegmatites feature asymmetric zoning and complex miarolitic cavities where residual, volatile-rich hydrothermal fluids crystallized exceptional crystals of polychrome tourmaline, beryl, quartz, and various zeolites. Quarrying operations at La Speranza and surrounding dikes began primarily in the nineteenth century for granitic building material, but the site quickly transitioned into dedicated mineral specimen extraction following discoveries of gem-quality crystals by early regional collectors. Systematic pocket mining and surface excavation occurred intermittently throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, with a resurgence of localized specimen mining by mineralogists and collectors during the latter half of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, before active extraction transitioned entirely to historical preservation.

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