WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, UCADI, #175 - Lithium hunting (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Neo-fascist Italy decides to be autarkic, a term which means "to be

self-sufficient", to become self-sufficient and not have to depend on
foreign imports for the materials needed for the ecological transition,
such as lithium and cobalt, essential for the construction of batteries
electric. For this reason, the Minister of Made in Italy Urso has
embraced the thesis of a study by the CNR which claims to have located
some areas through geological research in which significant deposits of
lithium and cobalt would be present. ---- An accurate review of the
geological, mineralogical and geochemical data available would have made
it possible to identify two main areas with high potential: the
peri-Tyrrhenian volcanic-geothermal belt (Tuscany-Lazio-Campania) where
in the past geothermal fluids with concentrations of lithium up to 480
mg/l and the band at the front of the Apennine chain (from Alessandria
to Pescara) where there are thermal manifestations, with lithium
contents up to 370 mg/l, spatially associated with hydrocarbon deposits.
On closer inspection, these are largely already known sites in which
mining activities were carried out since ancient times, subsequently
abandoned due to the high costs of the work against a very limited yield
of the sites in question. Italy is dotted with old mines, extraction
wells and anything else that are now abandoned, so much so that it can
be said that in Italy there is a total absence of a skilled workforce
capable of carrying out mining activities. The novelty would be
represented by the fact that the values found in the deep fluids of the
planet as regards lithium would allow the extraction of the metal with
the technique known as Direct Lithium Extraction, allowing the fields a
significant yield even if this extraction technique has an impact
devastating environment. In fact, it should not be forgotten that
lithium extraction in particular takes place with a very long and
complicated process that can last from eight months to three years. It
starts with drilling a hole and pumping the brine to the surface. The
unearthed minerals are then left outdoors to evaporate for months in
settling tanks from which not exactly healthy miasms emanate, first
creating a mixture of manganese, potassium, borax and salts which is
filtered and placed in another evaporation tank. It takes between 12 and
18 months for the mixture to be filtered enough to extract the lithium
carbonate.
Although this phase is now cheap and effective, it requires a lot of
water (estimated at 500,000 gallons per ton of extracted lithium). This
exerts strong pressure on local communities which are deprived of an
essential resource for agriculture and other economic activities in the
area which has now become increasingly less available due to climate
change and non-existent water management in the area. In order not to
understand the dimension of the problem, just think that, for example,
in the Salar de Atacama in Chile, mining has caused the loss of 65% of
the region's fresh water, putting a strain on local farmers who have had
to get supplies elsewhere to continue their work.
All this suggests that, given the structure of the Italian territory,
the difficulties for the extraction and processing of the mineral would
be difficult to tackle, especially in the face of the water crisis
resulting from climate change.
Collecting the stimuli coming from politics and scientific circles, we
note that whispers are arriving about the presence almost everywhere in
Italy of deposits of precious metals and sought after by industry which
would now have become competitive and economically convenient using
modern extraction techniques which allow us to reach greater depths and
to carry out more refined processes. The consistency of these voices and
guidelines would be confirmed by the choices of companies for the green
transition who think of a possible transition. This means that even in
the government there are those who believe that the industrialists
obviously know where to find the necessary raw materials.[1]

The different orientations in government

This orientation was espoused and shared by the Brothers of Italy not
only for reasons ascribable to the fascination of autarky, exerted on
the party by the historical reminiscences so dear to it, but also to
give space to the premier's policy of rapprochement with Europe and
majority that governs it, with a part of which the Conservative group
you chair would aspire to reach an agreement for the from the historical
reminiscences so dear to it, but also to give space to the premier's
policy of rapprochement to Europe and to the majority that governs it,
with a part of which the Conservative group chaired by her would like to
reach an agreement for the next Commission. If the country had the raw
materials necessary for the production of electric cars, it would be
easier to reach an agreement with the Christian Democrat component of
the European Parliament, within which green positions find broad
consensus. The League does not seem to be convinced of these
possibilities, which has supported a strong opposition to the green
restructuring especially of the automotive industry, in defense of
existing jobs, trying to at least delay the implementation times of the
project, waiting to review its guidelines and features. It is also true
that the different opinions between the two government parties at
European level were then recomposed at the time of the vote, on the
occasion of which both Lega and Fratelli d'Italia voted against
Regulation (EU) 2021/1119, also known as "European legislation on the
climate", but it seems possible to say that the League goes further, to
the point of supporting the reintroduction of nuclear power in Italy as
a solution to the country's energy problems, embracing the myth of clean
and fourth generation nuclear power.

The Ukrainian bet
Those who support the existence of an autarkic solution to the problem
fail to mention, out of modesty, that European industry, especially the
German one, has focused heavily on the deposits of lithium, cobalt and
gas which are said to be located in the Donbas - moreover according to a
geological expedition prepared by the Italian CNR - and in the Crimea to
be recovered, recklessly betting on the Russian defeat, but even more on
the supposed mineral wealth in areas such as those of Mariupol - whose
deposits are all to be verified - which will be difficult to recover and
for which it will be difficult however access, ravaged as they are by
war and thousands if not millions of landmines.
If he did, he would have to admit that the much enthusiastic aid to
Ukraine is not motivated by reasons of solidarity towards the attacked
country, but by a mere and squalid calculation of interest, aimed at
tying the country's resources to the European market, with the
consequence of having to explain that the Ukrainian war is a war fought
for the economic interests of Europe on one side and of Russia on the
other, which had been excluded by law from being able to enter the
Ukrainian market and propose itself as a manager of the resources we are
talking about . In this regard, see the Ukrainian law on the
redistribution of land ownership and mineral resources which precedes
the outbreak of the conflict by two years.
Whatever happens, as regards the supply of raw materials on the market,
it is quite clear that a situation of dependence on supplies from
countries that directly own the deposits of lithium and cobalt and rare
earths or control their exploitation will be inevitable, such as China
and Russia. In this situation there is a real risk that the paroxysmal
search for deposits on Italian territory will find space, effectively
justifying the autarkic aspirations of the current government.
But even in the event that these problems are resolved, the problematic
disposal of used batteries remains, which presents major problems of
pollution of the territories and groundwater. From this it follows that
the choice of abandoning the internal combustion engine to switch to the
electric one, on the basis of current scientific knowledge it is not all
that ecological, but simply risks exporting the pollution of the planet
from one sector to another.
E.P.

[1]On this point see: Saverio Craparo, Testacoda - past and future of
nuclear energy, Political Growth Newsletter, N°156, February 2022.
http://www.ucadi.org/2022/02/21/testacoda-passato-e-futuro-dellenergia-nucleare/
[2]See the law, Kiev, 31 March 2020, N 552-IX) and Gianni Cimbalo, The
economic causes of the Ukrainian war , Political Growth Newsletter,
n°160, June 2022, http://www.ucadi.org/2022/06/22

http://www.ucadi.org/2023/08/18/caccia-al-litio/
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