“Is there really gold under Monte Rosa?”
It’s a question that many people ask themselves, looking at those white peaks that rise towards the sky.
The answer is yes.
And we’re not talking about legends or some straw found by chance in the stream.
The gold of Monte Rosa has a centuries-long history, has made the fortune of entire generations, and represents one of the largest gold deposits in Italy.
A treasure that for 700 years has attracted miners, investors and dreamers from all over Europe.
Then, in 1961, everything stopped. The mines closed, the deposits were abandoned, and the gold remained there, under the rock, waiting.
But why? And what remains today of that golden fever that has spanned the centuries?
The Valleys: The Heart of the Gold District of Monte Rosa
There is not a single gold deposit in Monte Rosa.
There are several of them, distributed in what geologists call “gold district“.
The heart of everything is between theAnzasca Valley and Antrona Valley, that valley that goes from Piedimulera towards Macugnaga, at the foot of the eastern face of Monte Rosa.
Here, in Pestarena, is the richest area, where for centuries tunnels have been dug that extend for at least 20 square kilometers, for about 60 kilometers of tunnels.
But how was this gold formed?
The rocks fracture, causing hot fluids containing gold to flow through them. This slowly settles, giving rise over geological time to thin but very extensive layers called veins and lodes.
It is not easy gold to mine.
There are no giant nuggets like in western movies.
For every ton of rock mined, a few grams to a few dozen grams of gold are obtained.
Seven centuries of gold fever under Monte Rosa
The valleys of Monte Rosa are characterised by the presence of hydrothermal manifestations of quartz and gold-bearing sulphides which gave rise to mining activity which continued for seven hundred years starting from the 13th century.
Seven hundred years.
Tradition has it that the first to extract gold from the mineral veins of the Upper Anzasca Valley were the Romans, indeed, some even claim that they were Celts or Saxons.
L’The oldest evidence discovered is the discovery, in the Cani Mine, of a small bronze bell from the Roman era.
But it is thePeace and Concord Treaty of Saas Almagellof 16 August 1291 stipulated between the counts of Biandrate and the inhabitants of the valleys of Saas and Anzasca, an agreement also extended to thebankers The first official document certifying mining activity in the area.
The “banker’s men” were the miners, silver men“, who used mercury to extract gold.
People who knew the trade, who knew how to read the rock and follow the veins.
For centuries, extraction remained artisanal, carried out by local people who thus integrated the economy of poor and isolated valleys.
At least until the nineteenth century…
The 19th Century Boom: Monte Rosa Becomes the Klondike
In 1884 everything changed.
All the gold mines of the Ossola Valley were purchased by the English companyThe Pestarena Gold Mining who worked on them for about twenty years.
The English brought capital, modern technology, industrial organization; the gold mining of Monte Rosa became a serious business.
The numbers spoke clearly: between 1868 and 1870 an annual production around 200 kg. Almost a kilogram of gold per day.
For the time, it was a remarkable amount.
Workers from all over Italy arrived in the Anzasca Valley.
The valley filled with voices, with different dialects, with hopes.
But the mountain never forgives those who underestimate it, and the man blinded by the light of gold easily becomes its victim.
The End of a Dream: 1961, the Last Day of Gold
In the 1939, in the midst of the fascist era, the plants were passed to Ammi (Italian Metallic Minerals Company).
Ammi’s management was not the best.
In fact, it proved to be lacking in workplace safety and in hygiene and employee protection measures: without adequate precautions, cases of silicosis increased, a disease caused by the inhalation of dust raised by machinery, with very high mortality rates.
Finally the last straw…
It is February 13, 1961 when Four Italian miners die in an accident at work for the explosion of the dynamite charges they were carrying.
That day it all ended: the company closed down for good, the plants were dismantled, the workers went home.
It is the end of gold mining in the Monte Rosa Valleys.
Seven hundred years of history ended with an avoidable tragedy.
Why is the gold of Monte Rosa still sleeping underground?
The question everyone is asking is:why don’t we start again?
Gold is still there. Today there are more safety regulations.
“There is still gold here in the mines, but it is not worth investing in extraction: between initial investment, labor costs and prevention, it becomes impossible.”
There are mainly three reasons:
First: accessibility. Many mines are located at about 2000 meters above sea level and therefore the construction of infrastructure could be not only complex from a technical point of view but also problematic from an environmental and bureaucratic point of view.
Second: the yield. It is estimated that the Rosa mines produced something like 25 tons of gold in total, which in Italy is a lot, but is a rather small value if compared to the thousands of tons of Canada and Australia.
Third: the costs. For every gram of gold, tons of rock must be moved, with all the expenses that this entails.
According to some experts, it is likely that the main strand has never been found.: maybe someone could try to find out, and start a new gold rush.
But for now, the gold of Monte Rosa continues to sleep…
The mountain that holds treasures
Those who climb up to the Capanna Margherita, those who walk on the glaciers of Monte Rosa, often don’t know they are walking above one of the most important gold deposits in Italy.
And maybe that’s right.
The mountain has its treasures, some visible, some hidden.
Gold is one of them.
But the real treasure of Monte Rosa is something else: it is the beauty that takes your breath away, it is the silence that fills your soul, it is the feeling of being small in front of something immense.
Gold can wait, even forever, because it has already run its course in history.
The mountain, on the other hand, must be experienced.
If you want to know Monte Rosa, if you want to walk on its glaciers and touch its rock, if you want to feel what it really means to be on this mountain, we are here.
Our UIAGM mountain guides will take you to discover it, its peaks and its stories.
Because the real gold of Monte Rosa is the experience you take with you when you return to the valley.
Check out our Adventure Hub!
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