The theme of rare lands has returned to great interest in a following to the turbulent interview between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. One wonders more and more often if in Italy they are present deposits of these precious elements, and if yes where. In reality, unfortunately, we do not have, or at least not in quantities such as to justify the opening of new mines in the near future. Why then are so many maps of Italy on the web where deposits of these elements are indicated? This happens because, in reality, the reported elements are not rare but Critic raw materials.
Critical raw materials in Italy: the last ISPRA map
On the Italian territory they are present 16 of the 36 critical raw materials identified by the EU. As we can see, the richest areas from this point of view are those in Sardinia, Tuscany and long the Alpine arch. ATTENTION: these are areas where critical raw materials have been identified, but this does not imply than in these areas they will be open (or re-opening) mines. These are the statements of Minister Adolfo Urso in this regard:
The European Union has defined 34 critical raw materials, of which 16 also considered strategic for their relevance in the ecological and digital transition, intended for aerospace and defense, but also important for the gap between global offer and planned demand (…) we have in our country 16 of these 34 critical raw materials indicated, in particular those for electric batteries and solar panels but are found in mines that have been closed over 30 years ago, for their environmental impact or for minor profit margins.
As anticipated, among these do not appear rare lands, except for appreciable concentrations in the bauxiti and in Sardinian fluoriteseven if their possible extraction is still quite doubtful.
The difference between rare lands and critical raw materials
At this point it is useful to spend two words to clarify the terms “rare lands” and “criticism raw materials”.
Rare lands are a set of 17 elements of the periodic table widely used in many industrial areas, from the energy to the electronic one. Within this family we find Scandio, Ittrio, Lantanio, Cerio, Praseodimio, Neodimio, Promise, Samario, Europe, Gadolinio, Terbio, Disprosio, Olmio, Erbio, Tulio, Iterbio and Lutezio.
The matter first criticisms, Instead, they are a set of 34 raw materials indicated by the EU as vital for the energy and digital transition. These are: rare earthaluminum, coal from coke, lithium, phosphorus, antimony, feldspar, scandio, arsenic, fluorite, magnesium, metallic silicon, barite, gallium, manganese, stratium, beryllium, Germanio, graphite, tantalio, bismuto, afnio, niobio, metallic titanium, boro, helium, platinum, tungsten, tungsten, cobalt. phosphoritis, vanadium, copper and nickel.
Rare lands are therefore included within the critical raw materials identified by the EU but, as anticipated, on the Italian territory we have in minimal quantities and not such as to justify the opening of new extractive sites.
