At the Telle mining site in Montevecchio, nestled in a picturesque and quiet valley, stands one of the most extraordinary recoveries of mining archaeology. The imposing mining structure, named Pozzo Amsicora, along with the buildings that housed the winches and workshops.
The date “1938” to which the renovation of today’s appearance dates can still be read in the shaft casing. The shaft, the original layout of which dates back to the last decades of the 20th century, about 300 meters deep and elliptical in cross-section, with axes of 4.50 and 2.30 meters, communicated with eight levels of the mine that were connected by stoves placed at varying distances from each other.
A two-cylinder extraction machine, having the force of 20 horsepower-steam, and a pumping system with the power of 70m3 of water in an hour, operated in the Amsicora Well, which ensured the eduction of water from the western yards called Telle and Casargiu. The water, once edged, was piped into an open channel and poured into the Zerbini reservoir for reuse in the works. Later, when the extraction work was stopped, the water was discharged into the Rio Mannu.
In 1991, the shaft was the scene of the struggles of miners who, in protest of the mine’s closure, barricaded themselves for 26 days in defense of their jobs. Elected a symbol of the miners’ struggles, the City of Arbus has claimed ownership of Pozzo Amsicora because it significantly represents a piece of its own history.
