GEOLOGICAL SETTING OF THE PLEISTOCENE PLACERS AND ROMAN GOLD MINES OF THE IVREA MORAINIC AMPHITHEATRE (PIEDMONT, NW ITALY).

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Gianotti F., Geological setting of the Pleistocene placers and roman gold mines of the Ivrea Morainic Amphitheatre (Piedmont, NW Italy). (IT ISSN, 039-3356, 2011). Various alluvial gold placers are distribuited along the outer edge of the Ivrea Morainic Amphitheatre (AMI). They were exploited in pre-roman epoch and mainly under the Roman Republic rule, as Strabo and Pliny the Elder reported. The Bessa “aurifodinae”, dated to II-I century B.C., are the widest mine dumps (10 km2) constituted of rounded cobbles and boulders accumulations and anthropic stratified sandy-gravel fans. All the AMI placers are proglacials, but they differ in stratigraphic unit, geomorphologic setting, age and genetic evolution. The mines are differentiable into exploitations with or without water channels, depending on water disponibility and placer wealth.