the proposal for an EU fund for mining – Corriere.it

A trilateral between Italy, Germany and France to address the issue of critical raw materials and security of supply. That of Monday 26 June in Berlin will be only the first of a series of meetings between the ministers of the three countries. Until now, decisions on economic-productive matters were taken in bilateral summits between Paris and Berlin. A new format is born on Monday, declared the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, speaking yesterday at the conference of Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria. Urso will meet with the French Economy and Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, and the German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister, Robert Habeck. Enel, StMicroelectronics, Leonardo and Fincantieri will also participate in the summit, announced the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy.

The Critical Raw Materials Act

The three ministers will examine a dossier to bring to the table of the European Council on 29 and 30 June, where, among other topics, the Critical Raw Materials Act should also be discussed, the proposal for a regulation on critical raw materials which aims to strengthen the EU in this sector along all stages of the value chain. Again with a view to strengthening the country’s supply chains and strategic autonomy, Urso announced that in the first days of August he will present the Italian chip act, the national plan of microelectronics.

The government wants to reopen the mines

Among the government’s objectives there is also that of reviving mining in Italy. We made a map, and met with Environment Minister Picetto Fratin. In Italy we have 15 out of 34 strategic raw materials, but the deposits have been idle for 30 years and they are all in protected natural areas, explained Urso. Almost all of the approximately three thousand sites active on the national territory from 1870 to today are decommissioned or abandoned, of these those involved in the extraction of metal ores are around a thousand. In Piedmont, in Punta Corna, there are cobalt reserves. A study by the Cnr has identified two promising bands for the discovery of lithium in geothermal reservoirs between Tuscany, Lazio and Campania and in the area facing the Apennine chain, from Alessandria to Pescara, where there are thermal manifestations. While in Liguria there is one of the largest titanium deposits in the world. The problem is that these fields need to be re-evaluated because they have been sitting idle for years. Furthermore, they are almost all located in protected areas. This is why Rome is asking the EU to provide, within the ambit of the regulation, for derogations in cases where the national interest is at stake.

The hypothesis of a European sovereign wealth fund

Among the proposals put forward by Italy is that of a European sovereign wealth fund to support companies in the extraction activities and in the acquisition of deposits outside the EU. In recent weeks, the proposals of the policy paper presented by Gianclaudio Torlizzi, member of the scientific committee of the Luiss Policy Observatory and adviser to the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, were also examined. The strategy outlined by the document revolves around three objectives: to increase the national production of refined metals, to discourage the export of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap and to create a system of new companies specialized in the extraction and import of critical metals.