Mine Trail

Easy path to follow, well-trodden.

From the mid-1800s this area was rich in mines from which chalcopyrite was extracted (from which 7% copper and 42% sulfur were obtained on average). It first began on the opposite side of the Beth hill, in the municipality of Massello, in the mid-1800s with a network of tunnels dug and gave work to 300 families, also developing in Val Troncea and Pragelato, from which they benefited greatly, including from the commercial activities that were around the mines. Once the chalcopyrite was extracted, and after a first treatment, with a system of decauville, cableways and trains it was brought first to Pinerolo and then to Marseille. Unfortunately, on April 19, 1904, 81 miners short of food and worried by the abundant snowfall, decided to go down to the valley and were overwhelmed by a huge avalanche. This was one of the greatest Italian tragedies of the 1900s. The activity of the mines continued until 1910 when they closed permanently. That avalanche destroyed a lot, and descending from the Path of Mines we can see both to the right and to the left what remains, heaps of boulders and some remains of huts where the miners lived.