The treasure hunt in Sardinia must pass the Go. There is no ministerial blessing (yet) for the research project “Pedra Bianca”, presented by the Cagliari company Valmisa Srl, which wants to explore the subsoil of 3,125 hectares between Osilo, Cargeghe and Ploaghe to understand if it is worth digging to find rare earths – for which wars break out –, gold, silver, zirconium, titanium, tungsten, antimony, quartz, tin and other less valuable materials. The Ministry of the Environment decided on June 18: the operation must pass the environmental assessment procedure. The documents filed are defined as “definitely fragmented and not very exhaustive”. The intervention, even if the company has played down the impact, “determines potential negative and significant consequences on multiple components, including biodiversity”. And the critical issues that have emerged are many, on many fronts.

The braking

The ministerial decree imposing the EIA extends the times. The Region spoke of "total insufficiency of the hydrogeological study and failure to evaluate the potential impact on the aquifers". For the Roman offices "the preliminary environmental study and the related documents (...) are superficial and inadequate to address the due examination of the impacts".

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