The Meloni government has given the green light to the extraction of "critical raw materials"

The hunt for the so-called "critical raw materials", i.e. the elements necessary to assemble batteries and more generally almost any type of technological device, is also starting on European soil.Yesterday the Italian Council of Ministers approved a law decree to join the race.Cobalt, copper, lithium, magnesium, graphite, nickel, silicon, tungsten, titanium and others:there are 34 "critical matters" defined as fundamental for the European and Italian future, of which 17 are considered "strategic".Materials that the government deems necessary to "promote the digital and green transition" of the national industry, and which it now wants search right underground Italian.According to the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso – driving force behind the legislative decree together with the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin – in Italy we have at least 15 critical subjects.Some research has already begun, and various research permits have been issued in recent years to companies to explore the Italian subsoil, but with the new law decree there will be a notable acceleration of the entire procedural process.

One of the fundamental points is precisely the simplification of authorization procedures:in fact, the permits will be issued within a maximum of eighteen months for extraction activities and ten months for those aimed at processing and recycling.Judgments regarding strategic projects are also accelerated in relation to disputes regarding the recognition or issuance of qualifications, on the model of administrative judgments regarding PNRR.
Off to the mapping of brownfield sites, simplification and speeding up of regulations, controls and authorisations.Above all, it is researched cobalt and lithium, which in Italy are concentrated in Piedmont and northern Lazio (cobalt) and between Tuscany, Lazio - especially in the area north of Rome - and Campania (lithium).But the south of Sardinia contains other rare earths, copper is in Veneto, Tuscany and Lombardy, manganese in Abruzzo, Sicily and Calabria.And we could continue.In short:few regions risk being excluded from the reopening of mineral exploration.Deposits have already been identified, but "it will be a matter of seeing the extraction conditions, which will be assessed on a case-by-case basis" he states the minister Pichetto Fratin.

In fact, a national exploration program for critical raw materials is being created, currently with an endowment of 3.5 million euros, which must be promoted by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) by 24 May 2025 and subjected to five-year review as required by Critical Raw Materials Act, the European document that outlines extraction projects on the continent.The new rules then introduce a new system of royalties, which surpass the old legislation - with the related tariff of 16 euros per hectare per year - and ensure "5 to 7% shared between the State and the Regions" for mining concessions for strategic projects.In essence, as already happens for oil and gas extracted in Italy, the licenses will be entrusted to private individuals and the State will only have a small percentage of the proceeds.

The decree also «strengthens and directs the national Made in Italy fund which has an initial endowment of one billion – announces Urso – «to develop the strategic supply chain for the extraction of raw materials as well as to create a large national player, which today we don't have."The decree also provides for the establishment, at the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, of the Permanent Technical Committee for critical and strategic raw materials, which is entrusted with the monitoring of supply chains, in addition to the preparation of a National Plan of critical raw materials.

The Critical Raw Materials Act and the return of mining

The new law would have the task of adapting the national legislation on the mining sector to the European standards established by the regulation of Critical Raw materials Act.The disruption of global trade during the pandemic and then, above all, the sanctions imposed on Russia and the ongoing trade war with China have pushed Europe to seek methods of returning to some form of energy sovereignty;it is in this framework that the Critical Raw Materials Act, a European package of measures approved by the European Parliament and Council on 11 April, in effect to try to reduce dependence on China, which holds a substantial monopoly in the refining and extraction of certain key minerals.

More mines, increase processing capacity on European territory and diversify trading partners:these are the main European objectives, which aim to reach at least the 10% extractioni of the critical raw materials consumed in the Union in European mines by 2030.The 40% furthermore, the materials consumed will have to be processed on European soil.

We are trying to give a new wave of European extraction green face, and if we talk a lot about green economy, energy transition and recycling, one of the fundamental reasons for the sought-after mining autonomy is often forgotten in public discourse:there war.Many of these strategic materials are in fact necessary for the weapons construction and military defense – and attack – tools.The winds of war that are starting to blow in Europe, driven by the same ruling class made in the EU, can make us understand that the 10% of the critical materials used that will be extracted from the subsoil of the Union, when "necessary" will be used first for the military sector.

[by Monica Cillerai]