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Baveno specimens

Minerals have been collected at Baveno for centuries. The locality , which gave its name to the minerals bavenite and to the Baveno law for orthoclase twins, has  produced some of the world's finest orthoclase crystals.
In this page you can find a description and some curiosities about the locality.

Geographical setting

Baveno is situated on the western shore of Lake Maggiore , Piemonte  Italy. Quarries are situated on the slope of Mt. Mottarone and produced a pink granite known as Baveno granite. Pockets in this granite have yielded   about 60 mineral species and Baveno is the type locality for the minerals bavenite, bazzite, cascandite but is well known for orthoclase and quartz which are the most attractive minerals of this place.

Geology

The Baveno granite is hight in alkalies and calcium and low in magnesium. It's part of a pre-existing metamorphic unit know as eastern Strona gneiss and is also related to mica schists of the lake formation. The pink color is due to trace amounnts of iron in the orthoclase. Pegmatite pockets occur entirelywithin the granite body  and have irregural shapes. They occur unconnected to each others , thought they may be concentrated. The pockets size normally is greater than 50 cm , however some big pockets where occasionally found up to 2 m.

The minerals

Here  is a brief description of the most famous minerals we can find in the quarries

Bavenite: Baveno is type locality for bavenite .The mineral presents in radiating tufs of white needles and radial spheroids to 2 cm on orthoclase and quartz

Bazzite : is the scandium analog of beryl could be described as small blur prisms and bundles.

Flourite : it occurs in a variety of forms and colors  from green, pink, violet, yellow. The most common forms are the cube , octaedron , and dodecaedron , alone or in combination. Some crystals exhibiting  the effect of changing color from green to violet passing from sunlight to incandescent light.

Orthoclase: it's the most interesting mineral found at Baveno. Baveno-law twins are common.crystals are opaque. ivory - white to pink , and have porcelaneus luster. The bigger reach 20 cm but more commo are 3-4 cm.

Quartz : It's the most common mineral of the pockets. Associations with other minerals are many as coatings of hematite, chlorite, opal, babingtonite. Color range from milky to dark smoky.

Other minerals found:

Albite, Allanite, Anthophyllite,Apatite, Arsenopirite, Axinite, Babingtonite, Barite,Beryl, Calcite, Casacndite, Cassiterite, Cenosite,Chabasite, Chalcopyrite, Cholrite, Chrysocolla Clinoclore, Cordierite, Datolite, Epidoite, Fayalite, Gadolinite,Hematite,Heulandite, jervisite, Kaolinite, laumontite, Magnetite, molybdenite, Muscovite, Opal, Prehnite, Pyrite, Scheelite,Stilbite, Titanite,Uraninite, Zinnwaldite, Zircon