Minister Urso ready to reopen the mines: "Regulations by the end of the year"

There is "a high risk of procurement of critical raw materials, i.e. non-energy and non-agricultural ones" both for Europe and for our country.

This is why in Italy the mines should be "reopened" given that in our subsoil there are as many as "16 out of 34 of the critical raw materials" indicated by the EU .

Thus the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso , who, speaking on the sidelines of the presentation in Rome of the new think tank of the Luiss University on European issues, spoke of " a challenge and a great opportunity for our country ".

Like Italy, the minister stated in detail, " we possess 16 of the 34 critical raw materials indicated by the European Commission ", these are cobalt, nickel, lithium, and " abundant mining waste ". Of these " most are used for the construction of electric batteries and solar panels ". But « they are found in mines closed over 30 years ago due to their environmental impact and the lack of profit margins. It is necessary to invest and reactivate this potential . The proposal for a Community regulation asks us to reopen the mines and to make an effort in terms of recovery and investment in technological capacity".

"Probably by the end of this year the legislative process in Europe on critical raw materials will be concluded, with the approval by the Trilogue of the regulation that the Commission presented to us", Urso explained. «We will have completed our own legislative reform process, to allow those who want to operate in Italy to do so in a context of certainty. For this reason, together with the Minister of the Environment Pichetto Fratin we are already updating the country's mining maps, starting from those of 30 years ago ».

According to the minister «it will be the Commission that certifies the projects of the companies as important for the strategic autonomy of Europe. At that point, there will be a 2-year limit on mining permits and a 1-year refining permit limit on those projects. Today it takes 15 years in Europe to obtain authorization to extract from a mine, compared to 7 years in the United States, 2 in Canada and 3 months in China».

THE SITES – Almost all the mines present in Italy today are abandoned or abandoned. The deposits, which have remained unused for years, must however be re-evaluated to understand whether or not it makes sense to relaunch the mining activity and how profitable it can really be. Furthermore, most of the mines are located in protected areas. This is why Rome is asking the EU to provide, within the ambit of the regulation, for derogations in cases where the national interest is at stake.

In Italy, according to the latest Istat data, mining sites are mostly located in the South and Islands (46 sites). The sites in Sardinia (32), Piedmont (24) and Tuscany (15) together represent 59.2% of the national total .

(Unioneonline/vl)