Gypsum from Tuscany

Niccioleta Mine lies in Massa Marittima, Grosseto Province, Tuscany. The mining village of Niccioleta was built in the mid-1930s after an important pyrite deposit was found, the mine closed in 1992, and the village is now an open-air museum of mining history. Niccioleta is famed for spectacular pyrite and gypsum, and its gypsum is the most collectible and display-worthy in Grosseto Province.

Niccioleta’s gypsum is transparent selenite in large, well-formed crystals with a bright glassy luster, colorless and sometimes tinged faintly honey. It often grows on gleaming pyrite, so the metallic matrix shows through the crystal, and giant crystals more than a meter long have occasionally been found at Niccioleta.