FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Steve Kukla]

I plan to do some trekking and in-situ mineral photography (no collecting) at remote sites in Ticino and Valais cantons of Switzerland (post-covid).

While I have seen gorgeous photos of quartz, kyanite, staurolite, etc. specimens sourced from the Pizzo Forno area, I’ve never seen any photographs of dig sites and/or mines from its southern slope.

Can anyone point me to where I might view such photos?

Thanks!

[Josele]

There are some in Mindat:
https://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?pco=2&loc=3222

[Bob Morgan]

I'm sure the German Lapis has covered these at one time or other, either in the magazine or perhaps in a special book.
There are also Swiss periodicals - hard to find.
Good luck,

[PRODROMOS NIKOLAIDIS]

Hi Steve,

That sounds like an interesting idea you have and I'd love to see eventually your results someday.

I also like the in-situ photography of minerals but this kind of imagery is rather rare at least in publications (I guess due to the difficulty to do so?). I just checked the dedicated extraLapis for Ticino (extraLapis No 55 Tessin) to see if there's anything interesting but this doesn't seem to be the case.

My way of approach would be to contact local Strahlers directlly. Probably they have lots of unpublished images from their digging sites and it is possible that they might share some with you if you ask.

Anyways, I'm currently located in Zurich so if I could be of some help to you eventually, you are welcome to contact me!

Regards

[Dany Mabillard]

Hello Steve,

maybe you can get some information or addresses from the site https://www.svsmf.ch/fr/ the official site of the Swiss association of crystal seekers, mineral and fossil collectors. There are all the local associations like http://www.ccmft.ch/ for Tessin/Ticino and some information about the Swiss Crystal Seeker magazine.
(links normalized by FMF)

Have a nice day.

Dany.

[Steve Kukla]

Thanks. I’m on it!

[Steve Kukla]

Thank you for your kind offer. When the travel looms closer, then I will contact you with a question or two.

[Pete Richards]

I heard once from a credible source that Pizzo Forno is a dummy locality, selected by the Strahlers to prevent people from learning of the real location of the wonderful kyanite and staurolite specimens from "there". If this is true, it might make a disappointing mineral trek!

Maybe someone can confirm or refute this information.