From cobalt to titanium, we are full of minerals without (almost) knowing it

From Liguria to Emilia-Romagna, reserves of the most varied raw materials are hidden under our feet, owned by the state or by the regions, as the case may be. Notes for Minister Urso

The Amici del Tarinè committee has already given its sacred warning. It is not necessary to drill Mount Tarinè between Urbe, Sassello and Pianpaludo in Liguria to look for the largest European deposit of titanium, because Mount Tarinè is sacred to Tarinas, the Celtic god of thunder and lightning, “and certain deities – warns the nimby committee – it is better not to disturb them”. Cet, the European Titanium Company, is warned. Stay away from the mountain sacred to the immortal gods of the Celts and from the 9 million tons of titanium dioxide in a 6% concentration, one of the critical raw materials that the European Union is frantically seeking to free itself from Chinese slavery to rare minerals and strategic. It is a deposit, the one in the province of Savona, next to the Turchino – yes, that Turchino of the 59 martyrs slaughtered by machine-gun fire by the Germans in May 1944 and always the one to be knocked down to dissipate the mists in the Po Valley – it is a deposit that overflows garnets and eclogites for the production of titanium rutile capable of making the Norwegian one Engebøfjell pale.