Servette slag heaps, Servette-Chuc mining complex, Saint-Marcel, Aosta Valley, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Servette slag heaps	Group of Slag Localities
Servette-Chuc mining complex	Mining Area
Saint-Marcel	Commune
Aosta Valley	Autonomous Region
Italy	- not defined -

Large furnace slag heaps near the Servette mine. These heaps can be grouped under two sub-localities: the Fontillon dump and the “Strada Cavour” (Cavour road) slag heaps. Two kinds of slags are observable: porous slags containing fragments of gangue and pieces of carbonized wood; lava-like slags. The slags mainly consist of fayalite, wüstite, hercynite, Cu-Fe eutectoid alloys, relict sulphides and interstitial glass. Weathering products include goethite, green Cu sulphates and chrysocolla (Tumiati et al., 2005).

The Fontillon dump, a 300-m-wide and 50-m-high slag deposit at about 1660-1680 m in altitude, is located along the path between the Treves foundry, a blast furnace built around the XV century, and Servette mine. This dump has been partly damaged, as the slags have been utilized for paving the nearby roadways. Radiocarbon dating of a piece of carbonized wood enclosed in a piece of slag, sampled from the deepest and oldest part of the dump, provided an age of 1120 +/- 40 BP and, after calibration, 780-1120 AD. This testifies that the mine was operated during the Middle Ages, far before the activity of the Treves foundry.

Various slag heaps with an average thickness up to 7-10 m are spread along “Strada Cavour” (Cavour road), i.e., the pathway that connects Plout and the Chuc mining village to the nowadays main path Druges-Servette-Prabornaz mine. The largest of them is located at an altitude of 1738 m at the intersection of “Strada Cavour” with the main road to Prabornaz. Radiocarbon dating of a piece of carbonized wood enclosed in a piece of porous slag, sampled from the uppermost level of the dump, provided an age of < 100 BP. This is the age of the last period of exploitation of the Servette mine and suggests that the old low-shaft smelting technique (a technique used from the Middle Ages up to 1700) was still in use here at the end of the 19th century, due to the low socio-economic development of the valley.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References