I’ll explain why Italy must adopt a mining plan

2 June 202311 months ago babelfish

Italy needs a National Mining Plan to guarantee the supply of metals to the industry. The proposal by Gianclaudio Torlizzi , an expert on raw materials and adviser to the Minister of Defence

In driving a significant increase in demand for metals, the energy transition will fuel the intensification of mining activity, similar to what was seen during the surge in China's economy after WTO entry. The combination given by the supply risks and the increase in consumption in view of the implementation of climate policies requires that a National Mining Plan be devised in order to guarantee a satisfactory level of supply for the Italian industry, whose metal requirements will register an important growth from the values recorded in recent years (figure). Furthermore, having a metal extraction and refining chain means providing the country with a source of competitive advantage against international competition.

THE NATIONAL MINING PLAN, BY POINTS

The National Mining Plan should revolve around the following constituent elements:

Increased domestic production of refined metals . The first step to take in this sense is a geological mapping of the country. The identification of the deposits to be exploited will have to go hand in hand with the updating of the regulations that regulate the mining activity still in the Royal Decree No. 1443 of 1927, subsequently modified so as to include, between the eighties and nineties, the Regions which, with the sole exception of oil still under the jurisdiction of the central state. The State will have to recognize the importance of mining, in the protection of the national interest, intervening (and intervening) actively in the procurement strategy.
Incentive for recycling activities and disincentive for the export of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap . The mining activity will have to go hand in hand with the development of the recycling activity. Furthermore, it is appropriate for Italy to act as a spokesperson in Europe for the adoption of a mechanism that discourages the export of one of the few raw materials it has: scrap, which is essential for achieving the decarbonisation targets in the steel sector and metals.
Diversification of supplier countries with government to government agreements . With a view to de-risking from China, framework agreements should be stipulated to facilitate the supply of refined minerals and metals from countries with which there has so far been low trade. In this sense, Canada and Australia represent excellent candidates due to the strong availability of minerals and metals in their respective subsoils and their geostrategic location.
Creation of national champions, also in joint ventures with foreign mining groups, for national and international mining exploitation . The gap that the country will have to face in the coming years in pursuing Net Zero policies will not only be in terms of mineral availability and refining activities, but also that of the availability of the necessary financial capital and skills. It is therefore necessary to encourage the development not only of the Italian productive realities already present in our country, but also of new ones that could arise from the public-private meeting. The new realities will not necessarily have to operate within the country but also abroad through participations, joint ventures in extraction and refining projects.
Storage . In light of the strong volatility that characterizes the price dynamics of the raw materials sector, the country needs to equip itself with a monitoring and trading structure. The mission of this structure will be to build up strategic reserves of metal to be placed on the national market in situations where supply is severely lacking.

– Read also: Critical raw materials, what the EU can do to reduce dependence on foreign countries. CDP report

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/italia-piano-nazionale-minerario-torlizzi/ on Fri, 02 Jun 2023 05:44:14 +0000.