Two years ago, our daughter did an internship in Barcelona. While she was there, we met a vendor at the Tucson Gem Show from Barcelona, so when we went to visit her in Barcelona, we also got to visit that vendor and buy some special crystals from Spain. This year our daughter has been living in Madrid, and when we saw our Spanish vendor friend again at the Tucson Gem Show, we mentioned we were planning on visiting our daughter in Madrid and wanted to check out the pyrite cube mine. He told us that he and a partner had just purchased the mine and would try to set us up with a tour! (Turns out there is just one pyrite cube mine). How synchronistic is that?!!!! These are the kinds of coincidences that make us feel so blessed.
The day we drove north from Madrid towards the mine was the infamous day the power went out in all of Spain, Portugal and part of France. It was so bizarre to have the power out in two whole countries! Not only did the power go out, but the data connection as well, making it impossible to message or communicate with the outside world. Luckily the power was restored in the middle of the night, but we went to bed not knowing if we’d be able to complete our mission.
Our vendor friend advised us to stay in a small town near the mine called Cervera del Rio Alhama. Little did we know that this area of La Rioja is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve due to its combination of forests, crags and canyons that are mixed with historical sites, dinosaur footprints, hot springs and archaeological sites.
Cervera del Rio turned out to be a very picturesque town on a river with ancient cave dwellings in the cliffs around the town. We got to meet the previous owner of the mine (whose father discovered it 70 years ago) at the pyrite processing warehouse, and see workers clean the pyrite specimens, artfully removing just enough matrix to reveal the beauty of the crystals. It was also a nice surprise to find out that this town is one of the few places where they still make espadrille shoes, as they have for centuries! Of course, we had to get some.
The next day we got in our small SUV and headed to the mine. It was a beautiful drive past farms and small villages in the countryside with blue skies and breathtaking mountains surrounding us. The mine manager met us at the bottom of the mountain near the mine and led us up the road. At first I was not happy about having rented an SUV since most roads in Europe are so narrow, but the road up to the mine was all gravel, pitted and on a sharp incline, so I was happy to have that vehicle! Not only was it steep, it also had a steep drop-off, with no railings or anything preventing us from going over the edge. It was scary! Thankfully, we made it okay.
The mine manager showed us the short tunnel they had dug into the mountain to excavate the pyrite. Inside the tunnel, the rock bed walls were embedded with glittering pyrite cube crystals. This is where they get the specimens with cubes on the matrix. Inside the tunnel was hard rock and outside was softer rock, making it easy for the workers to pick out individual crystals out of the mud. The cubic crystals are only found in certain shallow layers, with the layers just above or below also containing pyrite crystals, but in different shapes (there are over 60 different known geometric formations of pyrite). It was just so cool to observe in person what a unique phenomenon it is!
It was another happy accident that this area is one of the most significant areas for fossil collection and study in Spain. They showed us a couple dinosaur footprints right next to the mine, and when we left the mine, we headed to the fossil museum in the nearby town of Igea to learn about the history of fossils in the area. Then we toured some fossil and dinosaur footprint sites in the countryside, featuring some of the largest and best-preserved dinosaur footprints on Earth. All the fossil sites are clearly marked and have explanatory plaques in Spanish, and we were the only tourists around.
It was an incredible adventure. Now whenever I show people this unique material in the store, I will fondly remember this trip.
