Meloni government plans to search for rare earths for electric mobility
What the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, announced. Here's how and where the Meloni government hunts for rare earths in Italy
The Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso , is convinced that «Italy is moving ahead of the extraction of rare earths». Our country has moved in particular since the EU has not forced the farewell to the production of new internal combustion engines since 2035 in favor of electric cars. There have been no public investments in this sense, neither inside nor outside the national borders and the maps of the Italian deposits are not updated and are left to be compiled by private individuals. What is certain is that the race for rare earths has begun, even for the Italian government: after all, as the holder of the department who was responsible for economic development admits to Repubblica , «we have just understood how dangerous it was to rely on Russian fossil fuels, not we can do the same with China on rare earths and precious minerals. In recent years Beijing has followed an expansionist policy with the acquisition of deposits, especially in Africa and then concentrating processing at home».
GOVERNMENT PLANS FOR RARE EARTH
Insiders in recent days have observed with amazement Urso 's emphatic announcement, according to which Liguria would host immense deposits of lithium (a key material in the development of batteries for laptops, smartphones and therefore also for electric cars), but also the minister himself, in dialogue with the newspaper directed by Maurizio Molinari: «The work we are completing with Minister Pichetto is precisely to update within the next three to four months a map that has been stationary for over 30 years».
In short, it is not clear with respect to whom we would be moving in advance, if by the government's own admission no one has taken an interest in rare earths in the last three decades, all this while China was shopping for deposits in the four corners of the globe, especially in Africa, in front of our coasts beyond the Mediterranean. As in the recent Cnel conference in which he had touched on the subject , Urso nonetheless flaunts optimism: «A table has been opened on critical raw materials and from the first estimates in Italy there are 15 of the 34 elements. But the potential is even higher."
Therefore, there are still no well-defined government plans on rare earths due to the simple fact that there is not even a map to rely on, Urso however anticipates that any move in this direction, being strategic for the country, will be financed by «Pnrr funds, of EU Repower and structural funds that can be redirected, but we need to accelerate on the European sovereign fund: it can be the key to acquiring deposits outside the EU with a view to differentiating supplies, and it can finance digital and green conversion projects for European companies".
WHERE TO DIG?
The problem is that for once the Italian government might have less difficulty finding funds than rare earths. From historical data it is known that there are some old mines in Piedmont ( Startmag talked about them here ), that Altamin, an Australian mining multinational that carries out a few targeted projects – above all research and surveys – has been present in Italy for some time, also through subsidiaries Strategic Minerals Italia Srl and Energia Minerals Srl intend to probe to understand its scope.
The Punta Corna Project has roots in a place historically known for the extraction of cobalt, nickel, copper and silver. Recent Alta samplings, the team reported some time ago, yielded high-grade assays over a length of more than 2 km from multiple sub-parallel veins, with good potential for the discovery of further mineralized veins and a significant extension in depth.
Here the hope would be to find above all cobalt – and it is not certain that it will be in sufficient quantity to start the field -, given that almost three quarters of world production takes place in the Democratic Republic of Congo where Amnesty International and other associations denounce the critical conditions in which, miners, often minors, treated as slaves, are forced to work in the locally run mines (most of them are in Chinese hands).
THE NORTH WEST FULL OF DEPOSITS?
In Piedmont Altamin moves on historical foundations: the mineral was already extracted in these areas in the eighteenth century and used as a pigment for fabrics and works of art. However, it is difficult to say on the basis of what the veins that run under the Alps are sufficient for the needs of the industrial revolution that we are about to embrace.
Altamin has applied for authorization for Mont Blanc and Corchia (Tuscany), the two most important historic mining districts in Italy, rich in copper, cobalt and manganese. However, it is difficult to say that this is enough to make us the first in Europe, as the minister said.
Always Altamin has recently been clashing with the populations of the valleys of the extreme eastern Liguria Graveglia, Gromolo, Petronio and Vara, but not because he is looking for lithium, but for copper, lead, manganese, zinc, silver, gold, cobalt, nickel and associated minerals in various sites in the area, so much so that it prompted the Liguria Region to sit down at a table with the mayors concerned, as we recalled here .
The area involved in the research is very vast, approximately 8,000 hectares, and intersects the territories of the municipalities of Sestri Levante, Né, Casarza Ligure and Castiglione Chiavarese: no excavation will be carried out at this stage, the project underlines, but we will start from a "historical" evaluation of the old mines, about a dozen, already present in the area, to which will be added samples of outcropping rocks, stream waters and electromagnetic surveys capable of providing an "ultrasound" of the rocks in depth. Also in Liguria, between the municipalities of Urbe and Sassello, in the Beigua National Park, is the Pianpaludo deposit, the largest titanium deposit in Europe, and one of the largest in the world, which however, given the area of interest, risks to remain out of the reach of such mechanics, bulldozers, excavators and TNT charges.
FROM LAZIO TO CAMPANIA
Vulcan Energy has obtained a research permit to explore a well discovered by Enel in 1974 at a depth of approximately 1,390 meters in Lazio. He will work side by side with Altamin , in a real race to see which of the two will arrive first at the deposit, if it exists. We know that in the area of Lake Bracciano, very deep, between 1,500 and 3,000 metres, there are geothermal fluids.
They are found in the volcanic area of Lazio but also in Campania. They were explored in the 70s and 80s because they were interesting for the production of geothermal electricity. The project did not go through, but on the other hand, hot salty waters that contain a lot of lithium, even 500 mg per liter of solution, "came to the surface".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/i-piani-del-governo-alla-ricerca-di-terre-rare-per-la-mobilita-elettrica/ on Tue, 11 Apr 2023 08:46:48 +0000.