Valmalenco: the history of people and mines

     The ore body of talc of Bagnada was discovered towards the last 20s by the Anonymous Company Asbestos Quarry (called later on Mineraria Valtellinese), which was leaded by Mr Grazzani, an engineer from Milan, while he was looking for new veins of asbestos.

According to some documents in the archives of the townhall of Lanzada, the first temporary mining concession was granted  in 1936 by the Mineral District of Milan. In 1870 other asbestos mining companies had already showed a great interest for talc. For example, Mr Silvio Zerzi, a garibaldian  repubblic doctor, born in Brescia and citizen of Chiesa Valmalenco for more than five years, was very interested in this mineral.

However, the technical difficulty in mining and a small demand of talc, which wasn’t much known, discouraged many industries from mining it; that’s why companies at that time preferred investing money in digging out asbestos, which was much more profitable.

The Bagnada mine was worked for more than 50 years, till 1987, when it was closed down because of the exhaustion of its ore body.

The mining activity had a great importance for the inhabitants of Valmalenco and  left back indelible traces in its history, landscape and economy.

The geological variety and the richness of resourses ( pot stone, serpentine, talc, asbestos) of the territory have made Valmalenco an international reference point for centuries.

 

 

Let’s make a step backward

     At the end of the XVII century, after having seen a spindle in a museum with some asbestos, found during the excavations of Ercolano, Candida Lena Perpenti, a noblewoman of Spanish origin but coming from Gordona (Sondrio), decided herself to dig out asbestos. In 1806 she produced the first pair of fireproof gloves she gave as a present to Eugenio  from Behaurnais, the viceroy of Italy.

Nowadays we know that the noblewoman used raw material  coming  for sure from Valmalenco. We can undoubtedly say that people in Valmalenco were among the first- after the Persians, the GreeKs and the Romans, who knew already the fireproof properties of asbestos- to discover and work  asbestos mines.

At the beginning of the XIX century, the industrialist from Chiavenna Antonio Vanossi, who was already working the mines in the territory of Lanzada in partnership with the fireman Pietro Plancher, tried to make fireproof material following the example of Lena Perpenti. Unfortunately a financial downfall caused the end of his business.

In 1867 the asbestos of Valmalenco was again protagonist on the home market. On 24th August 1867 there was the first mining concession of the Di Baviera- Del Corona Company. The mining concession was practised on local scale by Antonio Masa and Giovanni Maria Fornonzini, authentic pioneers of asbestos with Giovanni Antonio, Masa’s father.

Augusto from Bavaria was an undiscussed figure inside the Vatican; he was godson of Pope Pio IX, brigadier of the guards and the founder of the Roman Observer, official organ of the Holy See.

After having understood the economic potential of asbestos exploitation, he was convinced by Vittorio Del Corona, a priest from Arezzo, to make fireproof paper. The paper was used in the Rigamonti paper mill in Tivoli to draw up important legal documents.

 

 

On 16th October 1869, when  the marketing of asbestos paper was officialized, the first page of the Roman Observer exalted the features of this fireproof product and attributed the invention to the Papal States and particularly to the  marquess Augusto from Bavaria and to the canonical Vittorio Del Corona.

The mining activity was located on the layer of Mount Cengiasc-   exately in front of Bagnada. It supported for decades the maintenance of the local community, who was employed in digging out minerals. According to the documents of the Royal Corps of Mines from Milan, in 1880 there were 64 active layers in the Province of Sondrio; among them 62 were in Valmalenco and 50 in Lanzada.