Paradoxically, its most captivating feature, that of being located in the middle of a lush forest with a splendid view of the Cixerri river valley, contributed to its decline, until it closed down. Its isolated position, the difficulty in reaching it and the consequent excessive cost of transporting lead, zinc and barium extracted from its quarries, together with the collapse of their price on the international markets, meant that the gates of the Orbai mine already closed in the 1950s. Today, abandoned buildings remain, bearing witness to a historical period that saw the emergence of dozens of small workers’ villages around wells and tunnels throughout the Sulcis – Iglesiente and Guspinese areas, characterised by the hard work of the miners and the continuous coming and going of people and means of transport, after which it entered a melancholy decline towards the last decades of the 20th century.