Cavradi Gorge, Switzerland — Rutile on hematite with red glassy needles in Alpine fissures; celebrated for crystallographic order and Swiss collecting heritage.
Key facts
Rutile from Cavradi Gorge is not collected as the isolated, thick, black prisms that define many classic rutile localities. Its fame is more refined and more Alpine: sharp, wine-red to brown-red rutile crystals lying on, embedded in, or aligned across mirror-bright hematite plates. The best pieces are graphic little mineral architectures—dark metallic hematite blades with red rutile accents, sometimes raised on clear to cognac-colored quartz or associated with adularia. Under strong light, the rutile often flashes through the hematite’s black-silver glare as red glassy needles or flattened prisms, giving Cavradi specimens a contrast that is instantly recognizable to collectors.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The geological reason for the locality’s character is the Alpine cleft setting. Cavradi Gorge lies in the Tujetsch area of Graubünden, at the lower end of Val Curnera near the Curnera reservoir, where the gorge cuts metamorphic rocks of the Gotthard realm and the Tavetsch intermediate massif. The productive central zone includes Permian and Carboniferous rocks of the Urseren-Gavera zone: mica schists and gneisses carrying dense concentrations of Alpine-type fissures. These fissures provided the open space, hot mineralizing fluids, and changing pressure-temperature conditions needed for euhedral quartz, hematite, rutile, adularia, strontianite, and rarer accessory species to grow.
The collector appeal lies in crystallographic order as much as beauty. Cavradi is one of the great display localities for epitactic rutile on hematite: the red TiO2 crystals commonly follow the hematite, emphasizing the plate edges, face striations, and growth directions. A good Cavradi rutile specimen is therefore both aesthetic and instructive. It shows a precise relationship between two oxide minerals, but it does so with the drama of black mirrors and red blades.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Cavradi is also historically important in the Swiss collecting tradition. Local professional and semi-professional crystal hunters—the Strahler—have worked the gorge for generations, opening clefts in steep, unstable ground rather than mining an ore body. The locality is repeatedly described in the mineralogical literature as one of the classic mineral sites of the Central Swiss Alps and one of the world’s notable sources of hematite specimens. For rutile collectors, its special contribution is the red rutile-over-hematite association: small in scale, often miniature to thumbnail in format, but among the most elegant rutile parageneses in Europe.
Search for specimens: View all rutile specimens from Cavradi Gorge, Tujetsch, Switzerland
Cavradi Gorge is an Alpine fissure locality, not a conventional mine. It is situated in Val Curnera, in the municipality of Tujetsch, Surselva Region, canton Graubünden, Switzerland, near Sedrun and below the Curnera dam area. The gorge’s mineralized belt is narrow in geographic terms but exceptionally rich in fissure mineralogy. The best-known productive part is the central gorge, where mica schists and gneisses of the Urseren-Gavera zone contain numerous Alpine-type clefts. To the north the gorge cuts gneisses of the Tavetscher Zwischenmassiv, a zone with a different mineral signature often characterized by anatase. Toward the south, near Lai da Curnera, paragneisses of the Gotthard massif are comparatively poorer in open pockets.
The deposit type is classic Alpine cleft mineralization. During Alpine metamorphism and uplift, brittle fractures opened in the rocks; hydrothermal fluids leached elements from the surrounding lithologies and later deposited well-formed crystals in the cavities as temperature and pressure fell. In mica-rich schists and gneisses, iron and titanium were available in ways that favored hematite and TiO2 minerals, including rutile, anatase, and brookite. In Cavradi’s most collectible clefts, hematite grew as lustrous plates and blades, while rutile formed oriented red crystals on and within those hematite surfaces. Quartz, adularia, calcite, siderite, strontianite, schorl, albite, anatase, brookite, monazite-(Ce), xenotime-(Y), and several copper minerals are part of the wider locality suite.
The best hematite-rutile pieces come from clefts rather than veins mined for metal. The term “production” at Cavradi therefore means the intermittent discovery and working of pockets by Strahler. Over time, the local collectors have made small quarry-like workings and dumps in the gorge walls. Specimen recovery is labor-intensive and seasonal: the rock is steep, partly loose but tough, and many productive areas require ropes. The lower central part of the gorge has active or historically active Strahler workings, including areas where blasting has been used by permitted local collectors.
As of June 2026, collecting in Tujetsch is regulated by the municipality. A permit is required for crystal and mineral collecting with tools anywhere in the municipality, regardless of land ownership. Applicants must be at least 18 and carry liability insurance. Use of explosives or drilling machines requires an additional authorization limited to persons with civil residence in Tujetsch who are at least 20 and hold the required Swiss blasting certificate. Strahlen is prohibited on Sundays and on federal, cantonal, and municipal holidays listed in the law. A day permit requires the collector to state the specific collecting place for that day, and drilling or explosives are not allowed with a day permit. Significant finds of rare beauty or scientific importance must be reported to the municipal council, and the municipality has first right to acquire such finds for appropriate compensation.
The same current rules also define cleft protection and work-site obligations. A cleft being worked may be reserved for up to two years if properly marked with tools; no collector may reserve more than three clefts in the municipality or claim entire rock walls. Since the 2026 revision, tools marking clefts and material depots must be color-marked according to the municipality’s system, and depot owners must report depot coordinates to the municipal administration. These rules are not incidental details for Cavradi: they reflect the pressure on a famous, small, steep locality where professional work, collector interest, safety, and landscape concerns overlap.
Notable finds include rutile-hematite plates several centimeters across, hematite crystals reported up to about 6 cm across in the scientific literature, and fine quartz-hematite groups from the front Val Curnera area. Published photo records document Cavradi rutile-hematite specimens with rutile crystals to 7 mm on a 6.7 x 4.7 x 0.3 cm hematite plate, as well as hematite-rutile-quartz specimens in which both sides of the hematite carry embedded wine-red rutile. More recent illustrated accounts of the Cavradi book record a 3.5 x 2.5 cm floater of red rutile and hematite from Val da Cristallas, a 4.3 x 2.2 cm distorted quartz with hematite and rutile from Val dils Cavengs, and an 11.2 x 6 cm hematite with rutile on quartz from Val dils Cavengs.
Cavradi rutile is most prized when it is visibly oriented on hematite. The rutile typically appears as red, red-brown, or wine-red crystals against metallic gray to black hematite. The crystals may be slender prisms, flattened prisms, or needle-like forms; on many specimens they are not dominant by mass, but by placement. They decorate hematite faces, lie along growth lines, sit near plate edges, or appear embedded in the hematite surface. In good light, the rutile can look gemmy and translucent at the edges, even when the overall specimen reads visually as a dark metallic hematite group.
The most characteristic host is lustrous tabular hematite, commonly in intergrown plates or bladed aggregates. Cavradi hematite is famous for high luster, sharp edges, stepped growth, and abundant face striations. The rutile works with those textures: it makes the specimen less like a simple hematite plate and more like a natural diagram of crystallographic orientation. Collectors often describe these pieces as “hematite with rutile,” but the rutile is the feature that elevates many Cavradi hematites from attractive Swiss classics to locality-defining specimens.
Typical rutile sizes are small. Documented examples show several rutile crystals reaching 7 mm on a 6.7 cm hematite plate, while dealer and collection records commonly cite crystals in the few-millimeter range. A 4 mm rutile-rich miniature is already satisfying if the rutile is sharp, red, and well placed; a 6–7 mm, well-terminated crystal on lustrous hematite is a premium feature. Large independent rutile crystals are not the normal Cavradi target. The quality standard is not bulk but contrast, orientation, crystal sharpness, and preservation.
Associations are essential to evaluating Cavradi material. The classic triad is rutile, hematite, and quartz. Quartz may be colorless rock crystal, pale smoky, or cognac smoky; the front Val Curnera clefts are known for bright, often very clean quartz, though large quartz crystals are uncommon because many clefts are narrow. Adularia adds white to cream contrast, especially where hematite sits on feldspar or gneissic matrix. Calcite, siderite, strontianite, albite, schorl, anatase, brookite, and monazite-(Ce) are among the locality associates. Copper minerals such as djurleite, digenite, malachite, azurite, anilite, and related species belong to the broader central-gorge mineralization and help distinguish Cavradi from simpler Alpine hematite-quartz assemblages.
The best rutile-bearing Cavradi specimens have several virtues at once: a bright metallic hematite plate or cluster; red rutile that is clearly visible without magnification; minimal iron staining or clay obscuring the rutile; natural, balanced matrix; and no obvious crushing on the hematite edges. On matrix, pieces with quartz or adularia often display better than isolated hematite plates because the pale matrix amplifies the dark-red contrast. Floaters and 360-degree pieces are especially desirable, but they are scarcer because the extraction conditions are rough and the enclosing rock can be decomposed or unstable.
The main authenticity issue with Cavradi rutile is provenance, not treatment. Rutile and hematite epitaxy is a known Alpine habit from more than one Swiss locality, including classic Gotthard-area occurrences, so a label should not be accepted solely because a specimen shows red rutile on hematite. Cavradi pieces usually have a recognizable combination of very lustrous tabular to bladed hematite, red rutile accents, quartz and/or adularia, and a gneissic or feldspathic Alpine matrix. Older labels using Cavradi, Cavradischlucht, Val Curnera, Tavetsch, Tujetsch, Sedrun, or Grisons/Graubünden may all refer to the same general collecting district, but precise sublocality labels such as Val Aulta, Val dils Cavengs, or Val da Cristallas add value when credible.
No locality-specific treatment tradition is associated with Cavradi rutile comparable to heating, dyeing, or irradiation in gem materials. Cleaning, trimming, gluing to acrylic bases, and repair are the more relevant collector concerns. Cavradi hematite plates can be brittle at thin edges, and matrix specimens may break during extraction from decomposed or unstable rock. A respected specimen description from the trade notes that repairs are common in such matrix hematite pieces because of decayed granite and difficult collecting conditions. That observation fits what experienced collectors see: damage is usually mechanical, not cosmetic. Examine the junction between hematite and matrix, check for glue lines, and look for suspiciously perfect reattachments of hematite blades or quartz points.
Condition standards should be strict but realistic. Minor edge contacts on hematite plates are common, especially on older specimens and field-collected pieces from steep workings. Missing rutile tips are more serious because the rutile is often the very feature being bought. Under magnification, look for dulled red prisms, snapped needles, clay trapped around the hematite-rutile contact, and abrasion on exposed plate edges. Mirror luster hides some bruising in photographs, so rotate the specimen under a single light source rather than judging only from front-facing images.
Rarity depends heavily on format. Small hematite-rutile miniatures and thumbnails appear on the market with some regularity because the locality is famous and long collected. Clean, balanced, red-rutile-on-hematite pieces with obvious epitaxy are much less common. Matrix specimens with quartz or adularia, strong 3-dimensional form, and no repair are scarcer still. Pieces with large, distinct rutile crystals—roughly 5 mm or more, well terminated, and easy to see—should be treated as select Cavradi material.
Current market availability is intermittent rather than abundant. Cavradi specimens circulate through Swiss and European dealers, older Alpine collections, online mineral auctions, and specialized international dealers. Prices rise sharply with hematite luster, rutile visibility, pristine condition, old provenance, and attractive matrix. For rutile-focused collectors, the sweet spot is often a fine miniature: large enough that the red rutile reads without a microscope, small enough to avoid the common condition and repair issues of major matrix hematite groups.
The approach to Cavradi begins like an Alpine walk and ends like a mineral district in miniature. From the Tschamut golf course, the most interesting part of the gorge is roughly a 45-minute walk away. The path first climbs more strongly, then eases, staying on the eastern side of the gorge between about 5 and 100 meters above the creek. The route continues into the valley until a warning sign appears: “Avoid walks in the Cavradi area.” That sign is not ornamental. In the lower central gorge, Strahler have worked for decades, and the locality has not been shaped only by hand tools and patience. Small quarry-like excavations and long dumps mark the places where clefts have been pursued seriously.
The collector who enters the gorge is stepping into an active tradition rather than a casual rockhounding spot. The lower part is not recommended as a collecting area, and it is meant to be crossed quickly, ideally by only a very small party. Dumps may look tempting, but they are part of other people’s work sites, and moving through them can interrupt the Strahler and put a visitor in the path of falling or flying stone. Cavradi rewards patience in old, partly overgrown clefts and safer ground away from the main workings, but the easy-looking rubble is not necessarily fair game, safe ground, or productive ground.
The physical character of the place explains the condition of many specimens. The gorge is steep, hot on fine summer days, and in spring the walls can shed sharp plates of rock. Anyone working a wall must clear loose material above the work position; a rockfall is not the only danger, because a sharp falling slab can cut a rope. Old bolts exist in places, but they are not automatically trustworthy—hollow-sounding rock is a warning to move or clean down to sound stone. Traditional climbing protection such as nuts and friends is of little help where there are few clean cracks and the ground is slippery. Cavradi’s specimens may look jewel-like in a cabinet, but their field context is practical, exposed, and unforgiving.
There is also a seasonality to the gorge. Many working places lie below 2,000 meters and are partly southwest-facing, so access can often begin in early May. Yet that same exposure makes midsummer days punishing; on hot, clear days, the gorge can become uncomfortable after half a day. The combination of early-season rockfall, summer heat, active workings, and legal restrictions is part of why good Cavradi material carries a special kind of authority. It was not simply picked from a roadside. It came from a confined Alpine fissure zone that has demanded knowledge, time, and nerve from generations of Strahler.
The locality’s small scale makes its diversity more striking. The illustrated Cavradi book emphasizes that the gorge is only about 1.5 km long, yet within that short distance specimens can differ enough in habit and association that experienced collectors sometimes assign pieces to particular parts of the gorge. Published photo notes from that project record red rutile with hematite from Val da Cristallas, hematite and rutile with distorted quartz from Val dils Cavengs, and larger hematite-rutile-quartz combinations from the same subarea. That is the enduring fascination of Cavradi: a short, steep ravine, yet a mineralogical landscape detailed enough to reward locality connoisseurship at the scale of individual clefts.
One particularly memorable documented specimen story concerns a large Cavradi hematite-on-quartz group handled by The Arkenstone. The piece was remembered from around 2002 in the Marc Weill collection in Connecticut, reportedly earlier from the Marcus Budil collection. At that time it was described as about the size and weight of a bowling ball, impressive but unwieldy, with a dramatic hematite crystal and glistening quartz. Years later it resurfaced, and careful trimming reduced it in stages to a more balanced 10 x 8 x 8 cm specimen. The surprise was that it was not repaired, even though repairs are common in such matrix hematite specimens from Cavradi because of the difficult extraction and decayed granite. The story captures one of the great collector tensions at this locality: the desire to preserve Alpine matrix and natural context while revealing the sculptural hematite that makes the specimen sing.
