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[Joan R.]

Mas Sever Quarry (Massabé Quarry, Can Massabé; Mas Ceber), Massabè, Sils, La Selva, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
41º48,00.27"N
02º42'52.27"E

In recent times, very interesting smoky quartz and amethyst crystals have been found close to Girona (Catalonia, Spain). This area is well-known to the Catalan collectors since several years ago but, due to the new works to build the Barcelona-French frontier railroad, some new pegmatitic cavities have been providing the best specimens on amethyst, smoky quartz and microcline ever seen.

Also the microcline crystals are really interesting from their crystallography, which is why Carles Curto, curator of the Barcelona Natural History Museum, is working to describe them.

Three years ago some local collectors were taking a look in the Massabé Quarry, close to Sils, and they found nice crystals, collecting on the new working quarry walls. 500 m to the north they visited a new quarry opened by the railroad company. They found there fine smoky quartz and amethyst specimens, as you can see in the attached pictures. During the several months they were visiting the quarry they collected the biggest quantity we could remember.

Nowadays you can find some samples but you must to work hard.

Bibliography: Mineral Up, Vol. I, Nr. 3 (2007)
https://www.mineralup.net/
Photograph: Joaquim Callén, Joan Rosell, David Soler and Fabre Minerals

[chris]

Hello Joan,

Very nice. The amethyst scepter on top of the smoky is great. You can thank the railroad company for the opening of new cavities :-). Hope to see other pictures from time to time.

Christophe

[John S. White]

Indeed the amethyst scepter is wonderful, but I am more taken by the smoky quartz growing epitaxially on feldspar, one of the best examples I have seen of this phenomenon.

[Carles Curto]

And, what about so neat Baveno and Manebach twins? Nice.


John S. White wrote:
______________________________________________________________________

> Indeed the amethyst scepter is wonderful, but I am more taken by the smoky
> quartz growing epitaxially on feldspar, one of the best examples I have
> seen of this phenomenon.
______________________________________________________________________

[Joan R.]

Herewith attached you could find a very nice photo from the Massabé quarry. The author, David Soler, is going to publish some more photos and comments.
He knows very well the area.

[Sergio]

Here are some pictures about Massabe Quarry. The quarry's photos are from 2005 (I forgot where are other recent photos I've taken there) I don't know how works this of uploading photos, so sorry if I do something wrong or strange... :)

P.S.: sorry for my poor english!

[davidsoler]

Dear all,

I am glad to join the forum. Here are some photographs of the Massabé quarry and the railroad workings in 2006. In a next message I will attach some mineral pics.

The Massabé quarry has been worked for about a decade and now, as far as I know, is near the end of the activity. Only the nearby workings for the high velocity train from Barcelona to the French border have perhaps extended the life of the site. It has become a first order locality in Catalonia because of the extreme high quality of quartz, feldspars and related species, as Joan has excellently illustrated. Thanks to the easy access and relative permisivity of the quarry management, many local collectors have been visiting the area regularly. Furthermore, some workers of the blasting companies who are aware of its mineral richness have been being the first persons to "collect" specimens after the blastings. As a result, some private collections could be rated amongst the best in Europe regarding variety and mineralogical interest of the pieces of amethyst, smoky quartz, microcline, albite, muscovite and so on (mine is not!). The more spectacular pieces are, of course, those of bigger sizes - I have seen a perfect half a meter smoky quartz crystal in a private collector. Nevertheless, for those who also apreciate beauty in small samples, some thumbnail pieces are noteworthy.
The future of the locality is uncertain. The outcrops opened by the railroad workings will soon be covered, and perhaps the quarry will cease activity in a few years. So keep your samples carefully!

David

[Jordi Fabre]

Lovely photos and very fine explanations David. Thanks to participate on this forum!

Jordi

[davidsoler]

Thank you Jordi.

Here are two pics of thumbnail pieces that corroborate the mineralogical interest of the finds at Massabé Quarry.

David

[Jordi Fabre]

A recent view of the Massabé Quarry:

[Jordi Fabre]

One of the good things of a publication on line is its capacity to actualize info as well as establish some kind of synergy with the paper publications, in this case with the recent publication in the Mineralogical Record of an article from Simone and Peter Huber about the Mineral collection of Eleanore von Raab.

Eleanore von Raab was a member of a distinguished Carintian (Austrian) family and she built a fine collection in the XVIII century with the help of a great mineralogist, the Baron Ignaz von Born. You can know more about this collection as well as many other interesting topics in the March-April 2015 issue, volume 46, number 2 of the Mineralogical Record

In the page 287 of this article is pictured a photo of a Quartz amethyst, photo that you can see below. The caption of this photo says that this Quartz is labeled as from "Vic en Catalogne". This is French language and it means in English language: "Vic in Catalonia". Well, Vic is a Catalonian city and capital of the Osona comarca (county), it is a big city and geographically is located not so far to the Montseny Range, which is the classic Catalonian area for amethysts, so no doubts that the "Vic en Catalogne" correspond to one of the Montseny Catalonian amethyst also described in this thread. In previous posts of this thread you will find images of very similar amethysts found in the modern times and voilà! a historical specimen resurrect through its publication in a magazine and then we can fix its real locality as well as complete the information of this locality with more historical info!

BTW, if you want to know more about the historic amethyst from Montseny you can read this extraordinary thread: Amatistas en Catalunya - (67) published by Frederic Varela in the Spanish side of FMF, and in Spanish language. You can use the Google translator located in the top of every page to translate the whole article to English language. Don't miss it!

[Jordi Fabre]

Another example

[marco campos-venuti]

This is a quite unusual orthoclase twin from Cantera Massabé.

[Jordi Fabre]

And one specimen from the workings nearby Massabé for the high velocity train from Barcelona to the French border.
These workings are currently defunct and even scenically coated.

[Josele]

[Pete Richards]

[Josele]

Thank you Pete, I am unable to recognize Manebach twins, maybe because I have no one at home.

[Hans Cremers]

Dear mineral collecting friends,

During the last months I have read this topic and some others regarding these locations near Girona.
Does anyone here know if it is still possible to collect nice specimens in the Massabé quarries and/or nearby quarries or natural locations?
I'm a collector (not a dealer) from the Netherlands and we are planning our trip to Spain for the coming fall.
We would like to visit one or more locations near Girona to search for smokey quartz / amethyst.
Any information on the possibility of collecting here is very much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!
P.S. if information is confidential, a PM will also work ;-)

Kind regards,
Hans Cremers

[James Catmur]

Have a look at this page for more information

https://www.mtiblog.com/2019/04/pedrera-mas-sabe-massabe-sils-girona.html

I have no idea what, if anything, has been found recently but you would need permission from the quarry operators

PEDRERA MAS-SABE

[Hans Cremers]

Dear James,

Thank you for your advice. Of course we will ask the quarry owner for permission before entering.
I was just wondering if anyone had some more up-to-date information about this locality, or possibly other less well known localities in the area.
All tips and advice are welcome. :-)

Kind regards,
Hans