Rare earths, this is where they are in Italy and what the government wants to do

What is in the national territory

Rare deposits are found primarily in regions of the Alpine arc, from Friuli to Piedmont, and then in Liguria, Tuscany, northern Lazio, Abruzzo and Sardinia. Cobalt is found in Friuli, and magnesium and copper are found in Veneto. Cobalt, manganese, magnesium, barite and copper are found in Trentino and copper, barite, cobalt and beryllium in Lombardy. Beneath the Piedmontese Alps are cobalt, graphite, and manganese. Liguria has Italy’s largest deposits of titanium, on the mountains of the Bigua Park, between Genoa and Savona, as well as copper, graphite, manganese and barite. Tuscany is rich in copper and antimony, and it also has manganese and magnesium. In northern Lazio there are some deposits of cobalt, manganese and barite. Barite is also found in Sardinia, along with copper and antimony. In Abruzzo Apennine there are several deposits of bauxite and one of manganese. Bauxite is also found in northern Campania and in various regions of Puglia. In Calabria there is manganese, barite and graphite, in Sicily there is antimony and manganese.

Reasons for desertion

Italian rare earth mines have been abandoned in recent decades, partly because of fatigue and partly because it was cheaper to import these minerals from abroad. In the draft European Commission regulation, there are 34 “essential raw materials”: antimony, arsenic, bauxite, barite, beryllium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, coke, copper, feldspar, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, hafnium, helium, rare earth elements Heavy, light rare earth elements, lithium, magnesium, manganese, natural graphite, nickel – battery grade, niobium, phosphorite, phosphorus, platinum group metals, scandium, silicon metal, strontium, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, vanadium. Of these “critical” raw materials, 16 are considered “strategic”: bismuth, boron – metallic grade, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, lithium – battery grade, metallic magnesium, manganese – battery grade, natural graphite – battery grade, Nickel – battery grade, platinum group metals, rare earth elements for magnets (Nd, Pr, Tb, Dy, Gd, Sm, and Ce), silicon metal, titanium metal, tungsten.

download…