A plan to revive the extraction of nickel and tungsten from the mines of Sardinia.
It is the one being studied by the Ministry of Enterprise and the Ministry of the Environment , which have set up a table precisely to "make all the necessary decisions" to reactivate and enhance the extraction, from the Italian subsoil, of all the "critical raw materials" , that is, raw materials are essential for numerous industrial activities and particularly important for the ecological transition, as they are used, for example in photovoltaic panels and batteries.
"The electric world does not begin with the sun and the wind, but with the earth, with the fundamental materials for building batteries and for storing the energy produced with the entire range of renewable sources, including nuclear power", declared the number one of Mimit Adolfo Urso in an interview with Il Foglio. In the same, the minister illustrated precisely how to produce the critical raw materials, returning to digging in the mines.
The draft of an EU regulation to reduce dependence on a single country plans to diversify the sources of supply and produce 10% of the needs at home by 2030. As mentioned, the minister opened an ad hoc table together with the Minister of the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin , on 28 February.
As a first step, Urso explained, the map that dates back to the 1970s needs to be updated . Italy has 15 critical raw materials and eight of these could be extracted in three to four years, or even less : in addition to nickel and tungsten in Sardinia (and in the Alps) there are also: cobalt in Lazio and Piedmont; copper in Liguria, Tuscany and in the Alpine belt; lithium in upper Lazio; magnesium in Tuscany; graphite in Piedmont and Calabria; metallic titanium in Liguria, where the largest deposit in the EU is however in a protected national park.
The main way of financing, for Urso, is the European Fund for strategic investments which could also be used for projects abroad.
When asked if the Fgam, the mining body suppressed in 1978, will be reborn, the minister replies that "it is too early to discuss this".
As for the possible protests of environmentalists, Urso says: "We must understand that no one can consider themselves safe and even their own garden will end up drying up, the battle for the environment is fought by each assuming their own responsibilities".
(Unioneonline/lf)