Antica Miniera Aurifera della Guia

Under the pastures of Guia runs a gallery cut through gold-bearing rock. The Antica Miniera Aurifera della Guia is presented by the valley's tourism portal as the first gold-mine museum of the Alps, preserving the history of mining in the Monte Rosa region.

Why it matters

The rocks of the Monte Rosa massif contain auriferous pyrite, and the Anzasca valley mined gold for centuries. The Guia works are dated by the VisitOssola portal from 1710 to 1961. Mining shaped settlements including Pestarena and Borca and formed part of the economy of this Walser valley.

What to notice

The level gallery preserves veins of auriferous pyrite and traces of hand working. The museum collection of tools and documents interprets drilling, hauling and underground life. The mine is in the frazione of Fornarelli at Guia, near the Walser House Museum in Borca.

Context and history

The operator's history page records a tradition of gold extraction on this slope reaching back to early prospectors. What is documented with confidence is the modern arc: systematic exploitation grew in the eighteenth century — the VisitOssola portal dates the Guia works themselves from 1710 to 1961 — tunnels multiplied until the network exceeded fifty kilometres, and in the nineteenth century the veins drew capital and engineers from further afield. The portal preserves the measure of the best years: in 1942 some 40,000 tonnes of raw ore yielded 408 kilograms of pure gold, and six years later the take rose to 580 kilograms. In the 1950s the works still gave employment to around three hundred people, but obsolete technology, foreign competition and rising costs closed the mine in 1961, as the portal and the encyclopedic account of Macugnaga both record. Part of the Guia works was later adapted as a museum, preserving the valley's mining history. The Pestarena works also belong to this mining landscape.